CRAXI, BETTINO

born Feb. 24, 1934, Milan, Italy died Jan. 19, 2000, Tunis, Tunisia byname of Benedetto Craxi Italian politician who became his nation's first Socialist prime minister (198387). Craxi joined the Socialist Youth Movement in his late teens and became a member of the Italian Socialist Party's central committee in 1957. He won a seat on the city council of Milan in 1960, was elected to a seat in the national Chamber of Deputies in 1968, and became a deputy secretary of the Socialist Party in 1970. After the Socialists performed badly in the 1976 general elections, Craxi became the party's general secretary. He proceeded to unite the faction-ridden party, committed it to moderate social and economic policies, and tried to dissociate it from the much larger Communist Party. In addition, Craxi used the Socialists' role in coalition building to give the party a voice that was greater than its electoral weight. Under Craxi's leadership the Socialists were members in five of Italy's six coalition governments from 1980 to 1983. His decision to pull out of the Christian Democrat-led coalition in April 1983 provoked general elections in June that resulted in Craxi's being asked to form a government. He formed a coalition government with the Christian Democrats and several small, moderate parties. As prime minister Craxi pursued anti-inflationary fiscal policies and steered a pro-American course in foreign affairs. Economic growth and prosperity enabled him to retain his office, breaking the pattern of rapid turnover that had plagued Italy since World War II. He formed a new coalition government in 1986 but resigned in early 1987. In February 1993 multiple charges of political corruption forced Craxi, who denied the allegations, to resign his post as party leader. He left Italy for exile in Tunisia later that year. The government continued to investigate charges against him, and in 1994 he was twice sentenced in absentia to prison terms resulting from some of these charges.