Achille Lauro

Achille Lauro (; 16 June 1887 – 15 November 1982) was an Italian businessman and politician. He is widely considered one of the main precursors of modern populism in Italian politics. He was nicknamed by his supporters Il Comandante ("The Commander").

Biography Born the fifth of six children of the shipowner Gioacchino and of Laura Cafiero, he was on his part the shipowner and founder of the "Flotta Lauro", based in Southern Italy.

During the decades of Italian Fascist dictatorship (1922–1943), he became a member of the National Fascist Party (PNF) and was named National Counselor of the Chamber of Fasces and Corporations, appointed to this position by Galeazzo Ciano, son-in-law of Benito Mussolini himself, who was active in shipping commerce. Also during this period he was named president of the Naples football club SSC Napoli, where he succeeded Giorgio Ascarelli.

In fall of 1943, during the Allied invasion of Italy, American OSS officer Donald Downes describes requisitioning Lauro's strategically located palazzo:

Number 71 Via Francesco Crispi is a temple to essential Fascist vulgarity, and looks like nothing so much as a movie lobby in the gilded days of the opening of The Paramount in New York. The further you proceed from the circular foyer in green marble with the insignia of Lauro's fleet worked in the marble floor, the more institutionally ugly it becomes.

After the end of World War II, following an initial participation in the Common Man's Front, he became active in the Italian monarchist movement led by Alfredo Covelli and financially supported the foundation of the Monarchist National Party (PNM), and was for a long time the mayor of Naples.

In 1972, he joined the neo-fascist party Italian Social Movement (MSI). A square in the coastal town of Sorrento is named after him.

In the 2024 film Parthenope, a fictionalised version of Lauro was portrayed by Italian actor Alfonso Santagata.

Electoral history