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Gisella Floreanini

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gisella Floreanini
Member of the Parliament
In office
1948–1958
Personal details
Born3 April 1906
Milan, Kingdom of Italy
Died30 May 1993(1993-05-30) (aged 87)
Milan, Italy
Political partyItalian Communist Party

Gisella Floreanini (1906–1993) was an Italian teacher and politician who was an anti–Fascist activist and was a member of the Italian Parliament between 1948 and 1958.

Early life and education

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Floreanini was born in Milan on 3 April 1906.[1] She graduated from a conservatory and worked as a teacher during which she became familiar with the anti-Fascist movement.[2]

Anti-Fascist activities and exile

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Following the murder of Giacomo Matteotti in June 1924 Floreanini exiled into Lugano, Switzerland, where she collaborated with the anti-Fascist figures.[1] She briefly returned to Italy in 1929, but left the country again for Lugano.[1] In 1942 she joined the Italian Communist Party.[1] In late 1943 she settled in Italy where she continued her struggle against the Fascists.[1] She was arrested by the Swiss police while carrying the documents for anti-Fascists groups.[1] She was imprisoned for four months.[2] Following her release from prison she joined the partisans in Val d'Ossola and held a cabinet post in the Partisan Republic of Ossola between September and October 1944.[1] She was responsible for the women defense groups.[1]

Floreanini was among the contributors of the communist magazine Rinascita which was started in 1944.[3]

Political career

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Floreanini was named a member of the National Council in 1946.[4] She was elected to the Parliament for the constituency of Novara-Turin-Vercelli for the Communist Party in the general elections in 1948 and in 1953.[4] She did not run for a seat in the 1958 election.[4] She was a member of the Federation of the Italian Communist Party in Novara and a municipal councilor both in Novara and in Domodossola.[4] From 1963 to 1968 she was also a city councilor in Milan.[4]

Between 1959 and 1963 Floreanini was a member of the secretariat of the International Women Federation in Berlin and in 1965 she became director of the Union of Italian Women and National Association of Italian Partisans.[2]

Personal life and death

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Floreanini married Gianni Todaro with whom she had a daughter.[2] She returned from exile in 1929, and during this period her husband died.[2] Her second husband, Vittorio Della Porta, was a physician who left her when she was in prison in 1944.[2] They later divorced in Switzerland, but it was not recognized in Italy.[5] Due to this Floreanini experienced problems in being a candidate for the National Council.[5]

Floreanini died of cardiac arrest in Milan on 30 May 1993.[2]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h "Gisella Floreanini. La storia di una "madre" della Repubblica" (in Italian). Associazione Casa della Resistenza. Retrieved 17 March 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g "Gisella Floreanini" (in Italian). Giunta Provvisoria di Governo. Retrieved 17 March 2023.
  3. ^ Philip Cooke (1998). The Legacy of the Italian Resistance. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 62. doi:10.1057/9780230119017. ISBN 978-0-230-11901-7.
  4. ^ a b c d e Antonella Braga (2015). Gisella Floreanini (in Italian). Enciclopedia delle donne.
  5. ^ a b Molly Tambor (2014). The Lost Wave: Women and Democracy in Postwar Italy. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 51. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199378234.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-937824-1.
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