Name

Term of office

Political Party

Government

(Born–Died)

Camillo Benso, Conte di Cavour

23 March 1861

6 June 1861†

Historical Right

Cavour IV

(1810–1861)

Previously Prime Minister of Sardinia under Vittorio Emanuele II. A leader of the Italian unification movement, and firstPrime Minister of Italy. He had many stressful topics that all needed consideration, including how to create a national military, which legal institutions should be kept for where, the future of Rome, which most still believed must be capital of a united Italy. Cavour wished to incorporate the Papal States and Venetia in the new Italy, but did not live to see either.

†Died in office (stroke). His last words were reportedly L'Italia è fatta, tutto è a posto ("Italy is made. All is safe.").

Bettino Ricasoli

6 June 1861

3 March 1862

Historical Right

Ricasoli I

(1809–1880)

Previously Minister of the Interior in Tuscany. Unsuccessfully attempted to reconcile with the Holy See. Resigned.

Urbano Rattazzi

3 March 1862

8 December 1862

Historical Left

Rattazzi I

(1808–1873)

First leftist to become Prime Minister of Italy. He became president of the lower chamber in the first Italian Parliament. Due to his policy of repression towards Garibaldi at Aspromonte, he was driven from office.

Luigi Carlo Farini

8 December 1862

24 March 1863

Historical Right

Farini

(1812–1866)

Previously a Sardinian minister under Cavour. Farini took office after the reisgnation of Rattazzi. Resigned due to ill health.

Marco Minghetti

24 March 1863

28 September 1864

Historical Right

Minghetti I

(1818–1886)

Minister of the Interior under Cavour in the first Italian government. Minghetti concluded the September Convention with France, under which Napoleon III removed all French troops from Rome, and the Italian government was transferred fromTurin to Florence. This led to violent protest in Turin, causing Minghetti to resign.

Alfonso Ferrero la Marmora

28 September 1864

31 December 1865

Historical Right

La Marmora I

(1804–1878)

31 December 1865

20 June 1866

La Marmora II

He took part in the war of 1859 against the Empire of Austria. In April 1866 La Marmora concluded an alliance with Prussiaagainst Austria-Hungary, and, on the outbreak of the Third Italian War of Independence in June, took command of an army corps.

Bettino Ricasoli

20 June 1866

10 April 1867

Historical Right

Ricasoli II

(1809–1880)

Upon the departure of the French troops from Rome at the end of 1866 he again attempted to conciliate the Vatican with a convention, in virtue of which Italy would have restored to the Church the property of the suppressed religious orders in return for the gradual payment of 24,000,000. The Vatican accepted his proposal, but the Italian Chamber of Deputies proved refractory, and, though dissolved by Ricasoli, returned more hostile than before. Without waiting for a vote, Ricasoli resigned office and thenceforward practically disappeared from political life.

Urbano Rattazzi

10 April 1867

27 October 1867

Historical Left

Rattazzi II

(1808–1873)

He was re-elected in 1867, from April to October. Popular reaction to his hostility to Garibaldi again drove him from office.

Federico Luigi, Conte Menabrea

27 October 1867

5 January 1868

Historical Right

Menabrea I

(1809–1896)

5 January 1868

13 May 1869

Menabrea II

13 May 1869

14 December 1869

Menabrea III

In 1860 he became lieutenant-general and conducted the siege of Gaeta. He was appointed senator and received the title of count. Menabrea disavowed Garibaldi and instituted judicial proceedings against him. After a series of changes in the cabinet, and many crises, Menabrea resigned in December 1869 on the election of a new chamber in which he did not command a majority. He was made marquis of Valdora in 1875.

Giovanni Lanza

14 December 1869

10 July 1873

Historical Right

Lanza

(1810–1882)

He took an active part in the rising of 1848 and was elected to the Piedmontese parliament in that year. His cabinet had seen the accomplishment of Italian unity and the installation of an Italian government in Rome after the defeat of the Papal States in late 1870.

Marco Minghetti

10 July 1873

25 March 1876

Historical Right

Minghetti II

(1818–1886)

During his premiership he inaugurated the rapprochement between Italy, Austria and Germany, and reformed the naval and military administration; and before his ouster he was able, as finance minister, to balance the State budget for the first time since 1860.

Agostino Depretis

25 March 1876

25 December 1877

Historical Left

Depretis I

(1813–1887)

26 December 1877

24 March 1878

Depretis II

Upon the death of Rattazzi in 1873, Depretis became leader of the Left. During his cabinet, he thrown out Giuseppe Zanardelli and Alfredo Baccarini in order to please the Right, and subsequently bestowing portfolios upon Cesare Ricotti-Magnani, Robilant and other Conservatives, so as to complete the political process known as trasformismo.

Benedetto Cairoli

24 March 1878

19 December 1878

Historical Left

Cairoli I

(1825–1889)

He permitted the Irredentist agitation to carry the country to the verge of a war with Austria. General irritation was caused by his and Count Corti's policy of clean hands at the Berlin Congress, where Italy obtained nothing, while Austria-Hungarysecured a European mandate to occupy Bosnia and Herzegovina. A few months later the attempt of Giovanni Passannante to assassinate King Humbert at Naples (12 December 1878) caused his downfall, in spite of the courage displayed and the severe wound received by him in protecting the king's person on that occasion.

Agostino Depretis

19 December 1878

14 July 1879

Historical Left

Depretis III

(1813–1887)

He defeated Benedetto Cairoli in December, becoming Prime Minister, but after few months we was overthrown by Cairoli, who formed a new government with Depretis.

Benedetto Cairoli

14 July 1879

25 November 1879

Historical Left

Cairoli II

(1825–1889)

25 November 1879

29 May 1881

Cairoli III

On 3 July 1879 Cairoli returned to power, and in the following November formed with Depretis a coalition ministry, in which he retained the premiership and the foreign office. Confidence in French assurances, and belief that Britain would never permit the extension of French influence in North Africa, prevented him from foreseeing the French occupation of Tunis (11 May 1881). In view of popular indignation he resigned in order to avoid making inopportune declarations to the chamber.

Agostino Depretis

29 May 1881

25 May 1883

Historical Left

Depretis IV

(1813–1887)

25 May 1883

30 March 1884

Depretis V

30 March 1884

29 June 1885

Depretis VI

29 June 1885

30 May 1886

Depretis VII

30 May 1886

4 April 1887

Depretis VIII

4 April 1887

29 July 1887†

Depretis IX

During his long term of office he abolished the grist tax, extended suffrage, completed the railway system, aided Mancini in forming the Triple Alliance, and initiated colonial policy by the occupation of Massawa; but, at the same time, he vastly increased indirect taxation, corrupted and destroyed the fibre of parliamentary parties, and, by extravagance in public works, impaired the stability of Italian finance. †Died in office on 29 July 1887.

Francesco Crispi

29 July 1887

9 March 1889

Historical Left

Crispi I

(1819–1901)

9 March 1889

6 February 1891

Crispi II

Crispi was the first Prime Minister from Southern Italy. True to his initial progressive leanings he moved ahead with stalled reforms, abolishing the death penalty, revoking anti-strike laws, limiting police powers, reforming the penal code and the administration of justice with the help of his Minister of Justice Giuseppe Zanardelli, reorganising charities and passing public health laws and legislation to protect emigrants that worked abroad. His desire to make Italy a colonial power led to conflicts with France, which rejected Italian claims to Tunisia and opposed Italian expansion elsewhere in Africa. One of his first acts as premier was a visit to the German chancellor Otto von Bismarck, whom he desired to consult upon the working of the Triple Alliance.

Antonio Starabba, Marchese di Rudinì

6 February 1891

15 May 1892

Historical Right

Rudinì I

(1839–1908)

His administration proved vacillating, but it initiated the economic reforms by virtue of which Italian finances were put on a sound basis and also renewed the Triple Alliance. He was overthrown in May 1892.

Giovanni Giolitti

15 May 1892

15 December 1893

Historical Left

Giolitti I

(1842–1928)

Giolitti's first term as Prime Minister was marked by misfortune and misgovernment. Giolitti's political position, and the ensuing Banca Romana scandal obliged him to resign. His fall left the finances of the state disorganised, the pensions fund depleted, diplomatic relations with France strained in consequence of the massacre of Italian workmen at Aigues-Mortes.

Francesco Crispi

15 December 1893

10 March 1896

Historical Left

Crispi III

(1819–1901)

In the three weeks of uncertainty before Crispi formed a government on 15 December 1893, the rapid spread of violence drove many local authorities to defy Giolitti’s ban on the use of firearms. In December 1893, 92 peasants lost their lives in clashes with the police and army. Government building were burned as well as flour mills and bakeries that refused to lower their prices when taxes were lowered or abolished. Army reservists were recalled and General Roberto Morra di Lavriano was dispatched with 40,000 troops. The repression of the Fasci turned into outright persecution. Crispi’s uncompromising suppression of disorder, and his refusal to abandon either the Triple Alliance or the Eritrean colony, but the humiliating defeat of the Italian army at Adwa in March 1896 in Ethiopia during First Italo-Ethiopian War, brought about his resignation after riots broke out in several Italian towns.

Antonio Starabba, Marchese di Rudinì

10 March 1896

11 July 1896

Historical Right

Rudinì II

(1839–1908)

11 July 1896

14 December 1897

Rudinì III

14 December 1897

1 June 1898

Rudinì IV

1 June 1898

29 June 1898

Rudinì V

He signed the Treaty of Addis Ababa that formally ended the First Italo–Ethiopian War recognizing Ethiopia as an independent country. He endangered relations with Great Britain by the unauthorized publication of confidential diplomatic correspondence in a Green-book on Abyssinian affairs. To satisfy the anti-colonial party, he ceded Kassala to Great Britain. Indignation at the results of his policy left him without support of both the Left – who blamed him for the bloodshed – and the Right – who blamed him for the permissiveness that allegedly had promoted the uprisings and led to his overthrow in June 1898.

General Luigi Pelloux

29 June 1898

14 May 1899

Military

Pelloux I

(1839–1924)

14 May 1899

24-Jun-00

Pelloux II

He took stern measures against the revolutionary elements in southern Italy. The Public Safety Bill for the reform of the police laws, taken over by him from the Rudinì cabinet, and eventually promulgated by royal decree. The new coercive law was fiercely obstructed by the Socialist Party of Italy (PSI), which, with the Left and Extreme Left, succeeded in forcing General Pelloux to dissolve the Chamber in May 1900, and to resign office after the general election in June.

Giuseppe Saracco

24-Jun-00

15-Feb-01

Historical Left

Saracco

(1821–1907)

In June 1900 he succeeded in forming a Cabinet of pacification after the Obstructionist crisis which had caused the downfall of General Pelloux. His term of office was clouded by the assassination of King Umberto (29 July 1900), and his administration was brought to an end in February 1901 by a vote of the chamber condemning his weak attitude towards a general dock strike at Genoa.

Giuseppe Zanardelli

15-Feb-01

03-Nov-03

Historical Left

Zanardelli

(1826–1903)

Zanardelli was unable to achieve much during his last term of office, as his health was greatly impaired. His Divorce Bill, although voted in the Chamber of Deputies, had to be withdrawn on account of the strong opposition of the country. He retired from the administration on 21 November 1903.

Giovanni Giolitti

03-Nov-03

12-Mar-05

Historical Left

Giolitti II

(1842–1928)

He courted the left and labour unions with social legislation, including subsidies for low-income housing, preferential government contracts for worker cooperatives, and old age and disability pensions. However, he, too, had to resort to strong measures in repressing some serious disorders in various parts of Italy, and thus he lost the favour of the Socialists. In March 1905, feeling himself no longer secure, he resigned, indicating Alessandro Fortis as his successor.

Tommaso Tittoni

12-Mar-05

28-Mar-05

Historical Right

Tittoni

(1855–1931)

Ater the resignation of Giolitti in March 1905, Tittoni became interim Premier for a few days and remained in Alessandro Fortis's cabinet as Foreign Minister.

Alessandro Fortis

28-Mar-05

24-Dec-05

Historical Left

Fortis I

(1842–1909)

24-Dec-05

08-Feb-06

Fortis II

With Giolitti, Fortis formed his government, but after less than a year he was forced to resign.

Sidney Sonnino

08-Feb-06

29-May-06

Historical Right

Sonnino I

(1847–1922)

During his short cabinet Sonnino formed an alliance with France on the colonial espansion in North Africa. His government lasted only few months.

Giovanni Giolitti

29-May-06

11-Dec-09

Historical Left

Giolitti III

(1842–1928)

Many critics accused Giolitti of manipulating the elections, piling up majorities with the restricted suffrage at the time, using the prefects just as his contenders. However, he did refine the practice in the elections of 1904 and 1909 that gave the liberals secure majorities.

Sidney Sonnino

11-Dec-09

31-Mar-10

Historical Right

Sonnino II

(1847–1922)

After a vote of confidence on transports Sonnino resigns.

Luigi Luzzatti

31-Mar-10

30-Mar-11

Historical Right

Luzzatti

(1841–1927)

His administration, which lasted until 18 March 1911, was not very successful. Although a man of first-class financial ability, great honesty and wide culture, he had not the strength of character necessary to lead a government: he showed lack of energy in dealing with opposition and tried to avoid all measures likely to make him unpopular. Furthermore, he never realised that with the chamber, as it was then constituted, he only held office at Giolitti's good pleasure.

Giovanni Giolitti

30-Mar-11

21-Mar-14

Liberals

Giolitti IV

(1842–1928)

During this time, he bowed to nationalist pressure and fought the controversial Italo-Turkish War which made Libya an Italian colony. In 1912, Giolitti had the parliament approve an electoral reform bill that expanded the electorate from 3 million to 8.5 million voters – introducing near universal male suffrage – while commenting that first "teaching everyone to read and write" would have been a more reasonable route. Considered his most daring political move, the reform probably hastened the end of the Giolittian Era because his followers controlled fewer seats after the elections of 1913.

Antonio Salandra

21-Mar-14

05-Nov-14

Liberals

Salandra I

(1853–1931)

05-Nov-14

18-Jun-16

Salandra II

As choice of Giolitti, Salandra came in power in March 1914. However, he soon fell out with Giolitti over the question of Italian participation in World War I. While Giolitti supported neutrality, Salandra and his foreign minister, Sidney Sonnino, supported intervention on the side of the Allies, and secured Italy's entrance into the war despite the opposition of the majority in parliament. Following the success of an Austrian offensive from the Trentino in the spring of 1916, Salandra was forced to resign.

Paolo Boselli

18-Jun-16

29-Oct-17

Liberals

Boselli

(1838–1932)

In June 1916 he was a relatively undistinguished center-right politician and one of the oldest members of the Italian parliament, when he was appointed Prime Minister, following the collapse of the Salandra government as a result of military defeats. His government fell in October 1917 as a result of the Italian military defeat in the Battle of Caporetto.

Vittorio Emanuele Orlando

23-Oct-17

23-Jun-19

Liberals

Orlando

(1860–1952)

After the Italian military disaster in World War I at Caporetto on 25 October 1917, which led to the fall of the Boselli government, Orlando became Prime Minister, and continued in that role through the rest of the war. He had been a strong supporter of Italy's entry in the war. Orlando was encouraged in his support of the Allies because of secret promises made by the latter promising significant Italian territorial gains in Dalmatia (at the 1915 London Pact). The Italians later won the Battle of Vittorio Veneto in November 1918, a feat that coincided with the collapse of Austro-Hungarian Army and the end of the First World War on the Italian Front, as well as the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The fact that Italy recovered and ended up on the winning side in 1918 earned for Orlando the title "Premier of Victory." He was the head of the Italian delegation at theParis Peace Conference in 1919. His political position was seriously undermined by his failure to secure Italian interests at the Paris Peace Conference. Orlando resigned on 23 June 1919, following his inability to acquire Fiume for Italy in the peace settlement. In December 1919 he was elected president of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, but never again served as prime minister.

Francesco Saverio Nitti

23-Jun-19

21-May-20

Radical Party

Nitti I

(1868–1953)

21-May-20

15-Jun-20

Nitti II

Nitti had great difficulty keeping the administration functioning at all, thanks to the enmity between the extremely divergent political factions: the communists, anarchists and fascists. After less than a year as head of government, he resigned, and was succeeded by the veteran Giolitti on 16 June 1920.

Giovanni Giolitti

15-Jun-20

04-Jul-21

Liberals

Giolitti V

(1842–1928)

He became Prime Minister for the last time from 1920–1921 during Italy's "red years", when workers’ occupation of factoriesincreased the fear of a communist takeover led the political establishment to tolerate the rise of the fascists of Benito Mussolini. Giolitti enjoyed the support of the fascist squadristi and did not try to stop their forceful takeovers of city and regional government or their violence against their political opponents.

Ivanoe Bonomi

04-Jul-21

26-Feb-22

Italian Reformist Socialist Party

Bonomi I

(1873–1951)

He became Prime Minister of Italy for the first time, in a coalition government. Early in 1922, his government collapsed, and he was replaced as Prime Minister by Luigi Facta.

Luigi Facta

26-Feb-22

01-Aug-22

Liberals

Facta I

(1861–1930)

01-Aug-22

31-Oct-22

Facta II

Facta was appointed Prime Minister in February 1922. At the time, Italy was in political turmoil, and was dealing with Benito Mussolini's fascist insurgency. Facta did not openly oppose Mussolini, even though the latter had openly called for his resignation, and he was slow to react to insurrectionist attitudes within the population. When Facta did finally react to the mounting situation, it was to declare martial law.

Benito Mussolini

31-Oct-22

25-Jul-43

National Fascist Party

Mussolini

(1883–1945)

(Head of the Government and

Duce of Fascism from 1925)

Mussolini is the longest-service Prime Minister of Italy. Mussolini took the power with the March on Rome on October 1922. The first years of Mussolini's government were characterized by violence, repression and murders. In 1924 he nominated himself Duce. Mussolini's foremost priority was the improving the conditions of the popular classes, development of anationalist sentiment and introduction of corporatism, against the capitalism and communism. Press, radio, education, films, all were carefully supervised to create the impression that fascism was the doctrine of the twentieth century, replacing liberalism and democracy. A lavish cult of personality centered on Mussolini was promoted by the regime. In 1929, Mussolini signed with the Holy See the Lateran Treaty. During this time he's maintained strong relations with United Kingdom, United States and France. In 1936 Mussolini founded the Italian Empire after the winning of the Second Italo-Ethiopian War. In 1939 signed the Pact of Steel with Nazi Germany of Adolf Hitler. With Mussolini, Italy entered in the World War II in 1940 with the Axis Powers; but after three years the Allies invaded Sicily, Mussolini was deposed, and imprisoned by the King on Gran Sasso in Abruzzo. Rescued by the Nazis, Mussolini reorganised his forces in the north of Italy, at the head of a puppet-state, called Italian Social Republic. In 1945, after two years of fighting, the Allies broke through the Gothic Line in Northern Italy. After few days Mussolini was captured by Italian partisans and executed on 28 April.

Marshal Pietro Badoglio

25-Jul-43

17-Apr-44

Military

Badoglio I

(1871–1956)

22-Apr-44

18-Jun-44

Badoglio II

Badoglio was appointed after the arrest of Mussolini. On 8 September the armistice document was published by the Allies in the Badoglio Proclamation. It was published before Badoglio could communicate news of the switch to the Italian armed forces. All the units of the forces were generally surprised by the switch and unprepared for German actions to disarm them. In the early hours of 9 September, Badoglio, King Victor Emmanuel III, some military ministries, and the Chief of the General Staff escaped to Pescara and Brindisi seeking Allied protection. Following the German rescue of Mussolini, the liberation of Rome, and increasingly strong opposition, he was replaced on 9 June 1944 by Ivanoe Bonomi.

Ivanoe Bonomi

18-Jun-44

10-Dec-44

Labour Democratic Party

Bonomi II

(1873–1951)

12-Dec-44

19-Jun-45

Bonomi III

He led Italy as the country was being gained from the Fascist Italian Social Republic and the Nazi German occupiers, and helped the country's transition to democracy. He remained Prime Minister until 1945, by which time World War II in Europe had ended, and stayed active in the Italian government after that moment, serving on the Constituent Assembly's committee on treaties, and also representing Italy in councils of foreign ministers until 1946.

Ferruccio Parri

21-Jun-45

08-Dec-45

Action Party

Parri

(1890–1981)

He was appointed leader of a government supported, among the others, by the Action Party, the Christian Democracy, theCommunist Party, the Socialist Party and the Liberal Party. A middle-of-the-road man, he had been chosen as the compromise leader of a compromise Cabinet. He was also the Minister of the Interior (in charge of the police). When the Liberals withdrew their support from the coalition government, Parri resigned from his position.

Alcide De Gasperi

10-Dec-45

10-Jul-46

Christian Democracy

De Gasperi I

(1881–1954)

Last Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Italy. In December 1945, he took the power for the first time, leading a coalition government that included the Italian Communist Party and Italian Socialist Party. Communist party leader Palmiro Togliattiacted as vice-premier. He tried soften the terms of the pending Allied peace treaty with Italy and secured financial and economic aid through the European Recovery Program (Marshal Plan), which was opposed by the Communists.