Background
Antonio di Rudinì was born at Palermo, Italy on April 6, 1839 into an aristocratic Sicilian family.
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Antonio Starabba di di Rudinì
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A member of an aristocratic but liberal Sicilian family, Rudinì joined the revolutionaries of 1860, and, in 1864, following the Piedmontese annexation, he was appointed mayor of Palermo. In that post Rudinì successfully resisted the opponents of national unity who for a week besieged him in the town hall. As a reward, he was promoted to prefect with the task of suppressing brigandage in western Sicily. In 1869 he served briefly as minister of the interior before entering parliament, where he in time became leader of the Right. In 1891 he became premier for a year, surprising many by forming a coalition with the Left.
His second term as premier (and minister of the interior) followed a crisis brought on by the defeat of an Italian army at Adwa, Ethiopia, in March 1896. He concluded peace with Ethiopia, and to satisfy the anticolonial party he ceded Kassala to Great Britain, thus provoking much indignation in Italy. His domestic policy was not sufficiently elastic to avoid serious rioting, which broke out in 1898; nor was he sufficiently forceful in putting down an incipient Socialist revolution. His government fell in June.
Achievements
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In many respects Rudini, though leader of the Right and nominally a Conservative politician, proved a dissolving element in the Italian Conservative ranks. By his alliance with the Liberals under Nicotera in 1891, and by his understanding with the Radicals under Cavallotti in 1894-98; by abandoning his Conservative colleague, General Ricotti, to whom he owed the premiership in 1896; and by his vacillating action after his fall from power, he divided and demoralized a constitutional party which, with greater sincerity and less reliance upon political cleverness, he might have welded into a solid parliamentary organization.
Politics
In many respects Rudinì, though leader of the Right and nominally a Conservative politician, proved a dissolving element in the Italian Conservative ranks. By his alliance with the Liberals under Nicotera in 1891, and by his understanding with the Radicals under Cavallotti in 1894-1898; by abandoning his Conservative colleague, General Ricotti, to whom he owed the premiership in 1896; and by his vacillating action after his fall from power, he divided and demoralized a constitutional party which, with more sincerity and less reliance upon political cleverness, he might have welded into a solid parliamentary organization.
Membership
Chamber of Deputies (Kingdom of Italy)
Connections
He left a son, Carlo, who married a daughter of Mr Henry Labouchere.
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Born
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Died
August 6, 1908 (aged 69) -
Nationality
Italian -
Ethnicity
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Political Party
Historical Right