Arrigo Boldrini

Arrigo Boldrini (6 September 1915 – 22 January 2008) was an Italian politician and partisan, one of the most prominent figures of the Italian resistance movement, president of National Association of Italian Partisans for almost 60 years.

Biography During the Resistance

In 1943, Boldrini joined the then clandestine Italian Communist Party and has been one of the main promoters of the Resistance in Romagna. During the Resistance, Boldrini was the National Liberation Committee's reference man of Ravenna and leader of the 28th Garibaldi Brigade entitled to the partisan "Mario Gordini".

In 1945, some days immediately after the end of the war, his Brigade was still active in an area where had place a massacre of over 130 surrendered RSI soldiers and some former fascist civilians in Codevigo: in the last years he was indicated by revisionist researchers as the principal instigator of the crime, but in early post-war investigations Boldrini had already been acquitted of the same charges before trial, as it was demonstrated that the massacre was carried "... outside and against his orders and without his knowledge ...", and it's testified that he was elsewhere in the days of the massacre.

After the War Boldrini has embodied the ethical and political motives behind the struggle of the Italian Resistance, becoming one of the most authoritative and credible representatives at the institutional level: after being elected to the Constituent Assembly, Boldrini became the first President of the National Association of Italian Partisans, holding this office from 1947 to 2006.

Boldrini was later elected to the Chamber of Deputies from 1948 to 1972 and to the Senate from 1972 to 1992, being a member of the Parliament uninterruptedly from 1948 to 1994.

Electoral history ElectionHouseConstituencyPartyVotesResult 1946 Constituent Assembly Bologna–Ferrara–Ravenna–Forlì PCI 18,213 1948 Chamber of Deputies Bologna–Ferrara–Ravenna–Forlì PCI 43,850 Elected 1953 Chamber of Deputies Bologna–Ferrara–Ravenna–Forlì PCI 35,849 Elected 1958 Chamber of Deputies Bologna–Ferrara–Ravenna–Forlì PCI 32,218 Elected 1963 Chamber of Deputies Bologna–Ferrara–Ravenna–Forlì PCI 31,431 Elected 1968 Chamber of Deputies Bologna–Ferrara–Ravenna–Forlì PCI 62,842 Elected 1972 Chamber of Deputies Bologna–Ferrara–Ravenna–Forlì PCI 61,765 Elected 1976 Senate of the Republic Emilia-Romagna–Ravenna PCI 93,762 Elected 1979 Senate of the Republic Emilia-Romagna–Ravenna PCI 94,668 Elected 1983 Senate of the Republic Emilia-Romagna–Ravenna PCI 94,618 Elected 1987 Senate of the Republic Emilia-Romagna–Ravenna PCI 93,137 Elected 1992 Senate of the Republic Emilia-Romagna–Ravenna PDS 71,855 Elected