Giorgio Ruffolo

Giorgio Ruffolo (14 August 1926 – 16 February 2023) was an Italian economist, journalist and politician who held several government posts and was the Minister of the Environment for five years between 1987 and 1992 in four successive cabinets. He was a member of the now defunct Italian Socialist Party (PSI) and a significant socialist intellectual. He is known to be the founder of economic planning in Italy.

Biography Ruffolo was born on 14 August 1926 in Rome. In his formative years he was a member of the Italian Socialist Youth Federation (FGSI), Staunchly anti-Stalinist, the FGSI opposed the fusionist (pro-communist) policies of the PSI leader, Pietro Nenni, and in 1947 it followed Giuseppe Saragat into a new, more moderate organisation, the Italian Socialist Workers' Party (PSLI), which five years later was rebranded as the Italian Democratic Socialist Party (PSDI). Although still possessed of revolutionary aspirations – as demonstrated by the pseudonymous articles he wrote for the Trotskyist periodical Bandiera Rossa – Ruffolo sided with the FGSI and became a member of the reformist PSDI. After Mattei's death in a plane crash in 1962, Ruffolo left Eni to take on, at just 36, the role of Secretary General for Economic Planning in the Italian Government, having been appointed by the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Ugo La Malfa. and contributed to Progetto socialista ("Socialist Project", 1976), an embryonic party manifesto (later made official) which brought together authors such as Luciano Cafagna, Giuliano Amato, Francesco Alberoni, Corrado Serra, Roberto Guiducci, and Altiero Spinelli. The other founders of the institute included Antonio Pedone and Luigi Spaventa. Although he was an economist by profession, he had published various publications on the environment, which made him one of the most qualified of all Italian environment ministers.

Ruffolo also served in the European Parliament for three terms: 17 July 1979 to 30 September 1983, 19 July 1994 to 19 July 1999, and 20 July 1999 to 19 July 2004.

Ruffolo died in Rome on 16 February 2023, at the age of 96.