orig. Benedetto Craxi
born Feb. 24, 1934, Milan, Italy
died Jan. 19, 2000, Al-Hammamet, Tun.
Italian politician, Italy's first socialist prime minister (198387).
Involved initially with the socialist youth movement, he won election to the Chamber of Deputies in 1968 and rose to become the Socialist Party's general secretary in 1976. He united the faction-ridden party, committed it to moderate social and economic policies, and tried to dissociate it from the much larger Italian Communist Party. As prime minister, he pursued anti-inflationary fiscal policies and steered a pro-U.S. course in foreign affairs. In 1993 multiple charges of political corruption forced Craxi, who denied the allegations, to resign as party leader. He moved to Tunisia, and in 1994 he was twice sentenced in absentia to prison terms.