Falcone Lucifero

Marquis Falcone Lucifero (Crotone, 3 January 1898 – Rome, 2 May 1997) was an Italian politician, who served as Minister of Agriculture and Forests of the Kingdom of Italy in the Badoglio I Cabinet, and Minister of the Royal House from 1944 to 1946. After the abolition of the monarchy in Italy he remained in the country as Umberto II’s official representative.

Biography

The son of Armando Lucifero and cousin of Roberto Lucifero d'Aprigliano, he was born into a noble family. At the end of the First World War, in which he participated as an officer, he graduated in law in Turin. In 1920 he was elected to the municipal council of Crotone, his hometown; in the same year he joined the Unitary Socialist Party, which however he left after two years to join the National Fascist Party. However, after the establishment of the Fascist regime he retired from political life, practicing the profession of lawyer. Following the fall of the regime, on 25 July 1943, the first Badoglio government appointed him prefect of Catanzaro and then of Bari, and from 11 February to 22 April 1944 he served as Minister of Agriculture in the same government, replacing Alessandro Brizi.

On 4 June 1944 Umberto of Savoy, Lieutenant-General of the Realm, appointed him as Minister of the Royal House, replacing Pietro d'Acquarone. During the following two years Lucifero was thus the main liaison between the royal family and the government; after the end of the war, he organized the campaign in favor of the monarchy in the run-up to the institutional referendum of 2 June 1946. After the defeat of the monarchy in the referendum, from 2 to 13 June 1946 he managed the delicate transitional phase, and on 13 June, following the attribution by the Council of Ministers of the powers of provisional head of state to the head of government Alcide De Gasperi, he drafted the text of the last proclamation of King Umberto II.