title: History of the Italian Republic

text: A Constituent Assembly was in place between June 1946 and January 1948; it wrote the new Constitution of Italy, which took effect on 1 January 1948. The peace treaty between Italy and the Allies of World War II was signed in Paris in February 1947. In 1946, the main Italian political parties were:


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: Each party had run separate candidates in the 1946 general election, and the Christian Democrats won a plurality of votes. The PSI and the PCI received some ministerial posts in a Christian Democrat–led coalition cabinet. PCI's leader Palmiro Togliatti was minister of Justice. As in France, where Maurice Thorez and four other Communist ministers were forced to leave Paul Ramadier's government during the May 1947 crisis, both the Italian Communists (PCI) and Socialists (PSI) were excluded from government the same month under pressure from US President Harry Truman.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: Since the PSI and the PCI together received more votes than the Christian Democrats, they decided to unite in 1948 to form the Popular Democratic Front (FDP). The 1948 general elections were heavily influenced by the then flaring cold-war confrontation between the Soviet Union and the US. After the Soviet-inspired February 1948 communist coup in Czechoslovakia the US became alarmed about Soviet intentions and feared that the Soviet-funded PCI would draw Italy into the Soviet Union's sphere of influence if the leftist coalition were to win the elections. In response, in March 1948 the United States National Security Council issued its first document proffering recommendations to avoid such an outcome which were widely and energetically implemented. Tons of letters were sent by mostly Italian Americans urging Italians not to vote Communist. US agencies made numerous short-wave propaganda radio broadcasts and funded the publishing of books and articles, warning the Italians of the perceived consequences of a Communist victory. The CIA also funded the centre-right political parties and was accused of publishing forged letters to discredit the leaders of the PCI. The PCI itself was accused of being funded by Moscow and the Cominform, and in particular via export deals to the communist countries.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: Fears in the Italian electorate of a possible Communist takeover proved crucial for the electoral outcome on 18 April; the Christian Democrats ("Democrazia Cristiana", DC), under the undisputed leadership of Alcide De Gasperi won a resounding victory with 48% of the vote, which was their best result ever and not repeated since, while the FDP only received 31% of the votes. The Communist Party widely outdid the Socialists in the distribution of seats in Parliament, and gained a solid position as the main opposition party in Italy, even if it would never return in government. For almost four decades, Italian elections were successively won by the DC, a centrist party.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: Under the Treaty of Peace with Italy, 1947, Istria, Kvarner, most of the Julian March as well as the Dalmatian city of Zara was annexed by Yugoslavia causing the Istrian-Dalmatian exodus, which led to the emigration of between 230,000 and 350,000 of local ethnic Italians (Istrian Italians and Dalmatian Italians), the others being ethnic Slovenians, ethnic Croatians, and ethnic Istro-Romanians, choosing to maintain Italian citizenship. Later, the Free Territory of Trieste was divided between the two states. Italy also lost all of its colonial possessions, formally ending the Italian Empire. In 1950, Italian Somaliland was made a United Nations Trust Territory under Italian administration until 1 July 1960. The Italian border that applies today has existed since 1975, when Trieste was formally re-annexed to Italy.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: In the 1950s Italy became a founding member of the NATO alliance (1949), a member of the United Nations (1955) and an ally of the United States, which helped to revive the Italian economy through the Marshall Plan. In the same years, Italy also became a founding member of the ECSC (1952) and of the European Economic Community (1957), later developed into the European Union. At the end of the 1950s an impressive economic growth was termed "Italian economic miracle", a term that is still recognized in Italian politics. The impact of the economic miracle on Italian society was huge. Fast economic expansion induced massive inflows of migrants from rural Southern Italy to the industrial cities of the North. Emigration was especially directed to the factories of the so-called "industrial triangle", the region placed between the major manufacturing centres of Milan and Turin and the seaport of Genoa. Between 1955 and 1971, around 9 million people are estimated to have been involved in inter-regional migrations in Italy, uprooting entire communities and creating large metropolitan areas. At the same time, the doubling of Italian GDP between 1950 and 1962 Italians families used their newfound wealth to purchase consumer durables for the first time. In 1955, for instance, only 3% of households owned refrigerators and 1% washing machines, while by 1975 the respective figures were 94% and 76%. In addition, 66% of all homes had come to possess cars. As noted by the historian Paul Ginsborg:


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: Christian Democracy's main support areas (sometimes known as "vote tanks") were the rural areas in South, Center and North-East Italy, whereas the industrial North-West had more left-leaning support because of the larger working class. An interesting exception were the "red regions" (Emilia Romagna, Tuscany, Umbria) where the Italian Communist Party has historically had a wide support. This is considered a consequence of the particular sharecropping ("mezzadria") farming contracts used in these regions.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: The Holy See actively supported the Christian Democracy, judging it would be a mortal sin for a Catholic to vote for the Communist Party and excommunicating all its supporters. Giovanni Guareschi wrote his novels about Don Camillo describing a village, Brescello, whose inhabitants are at the same time loyal to priest Camillo and Communist mayor Peppone, who are fierce rivals.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: In 1953, a Parliamentary Commission on poverty estimated that 24% of Italian families were either "destitute" or "in hardship", 21% of dwellings were overcrowded, 52% of homes in the south had no running drinking water, and only 57% had a lavatory. In the 1950s, several important reforms were launched: e.g. agrarian reform (legge Scelba), fiscal reform (legge Vanoni), and the country enjoyed a period of extraordinary economic development ("miracolo economico", economic miracle). In this period of time, a massive population transfer, from the impoverished South to the booming industrial North, took place. This however exacerbated social contrasts, including between the old-established "worker aristocracy" and the new less qualified immigrants ("operaio-massa") of Southern origin. In addition, a wide gap between rich and poor continued to exist. By the end of the Sixties, it was estimated that 4 million Italians (out of a population of 54.5 million) were unemployed, underemployed, and casual labourers. As noted by the historian Paul Ginsborg, the affluent society to this section of the Italian population "might have meant a television set but precious little else".


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: During the First Republic, the Christian Democracy slowly but steadily lost support, as society modernised and the traditional values at its ideological core became less appealing to the population. Various options of extending the parliamentary majority were considered, mainly an opening to the left ("apertura a sinistra"), i.e. to the Socialist Party (PSI), which after the 1956 events in Hungary had moved from a position of total subordination to the Communists to an independent position. Proponents of such a coalition proposed a series much-needed "structural reforms" that would modernize the country and create a modern social-democracy. In 1960, an attempt by the right wing of the Christian Democrats to incorporate the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement (MSI) in the Tambroni government led to violent and bloody riots (Genoa, Reggio Emilia), and was defeated.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: Up until the Nineties, two types of governmental coalitions characterised the politics of post-war Italy. The first were "centrist" coalitions led by the Christian Democracy party together with smaller parties: the PSDI, the PRT, and the PLI. The first democratic government (1947) excluded both the PCI and the PSI, which brought about the political period known as "centrist government", which ruled over Italian politics from 1948 to 1963. The centre-left coalition (DC-PRI-PSDI-PSI) was the second type of coalition that characterised Italian politics, coming about in 1963 when the PSI (formerly the opposition party) went into government with the DC. This coalition lasted in parliament first for 12 years (from 1964 to 1976) and then with a revival in the Eighties that lasted until the start of the Nineties.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: The PSI entered government in 1963. During the first year of the new Centre-Left Government, a wide range of measures were carried out which went some way towards the Socialist Party's requirements for governing in coalition with the Christian Democrats. These included taxation of real estate profits and of share dividends (designed to curb speculation), increases in pensions for various categories of workers, a law on school organisation (to provide for a unified secondary school with compulsory attendance up to the age of 14), the nationalisation of the electric-power industry, and significant wage rises for workers (including those in the newly nationalised electric-power industry), which led to a rise in consumer demand. Urged on by the PSI, the government also made brave attempts to tackle issues relating to welfare services, hospitals, the agrarian structure, urban development, education, and overall planning. For instance, during the Centre-Left Government's time in office, social security was extended to previously uncovered categories of the population. In addition, entrance to university by examination was abolished in 1965. Despite these important reforms, however, the reformist drive was soon lost, and the most important problems (including the mafia, social inequalities, inefficient state/social services, North/South imbalance) remained largely untackled.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: The Italian Parliament voted, in December 1962, a law which created an Antimafia Commission. Any question about the need for such a law was obviated by the Ciaculli massacre in June of the following year, in which seven policemen and soldiers were killed attempting to defuse a car bomb in the suburbs of Palermo. The existence of the bomb had been disclosed by an anonymous telephone call. The massacre took place in the frame of the First Mafia War in the 1960s, with the bomb intended for Salvatore Greco, head of the Sicilian Mafia Commission formed in the late 1950s. The Mafia was fighting for the control of the profitable opportunities brought about by rapid urban growth and the heroin trade to North America. The ferocity of the struggle was unprecedented, reaping 68 victims from 1961 to 1963. The Antimafia Commission submitted its final report in 1976. The Mafia had created ties with the political world. The period 1958–1964, when Salvo Lima (DC) was mayor of Palermo and Vito Ciancimino (DC) was assessor for public works, was later referred to as the "Sack of Palermo".


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: In 1965, the SIFAR intelligence agency was transformed into the SID following an aborted coup d'état, "Piano Solo", which was to give the power to the "Carabinieri", then headed by General De Lorenzo.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: The difficult equilibrium of Italian society was challenged by a rising left-wing movement, in the wake of 1968 student unrest ("Sessantotto"). This movement was characterized by such heterogeneous events as revolts by jobless farm workers (Avola, Battipaglia 1969), occupations of universities by students, social unrest in the large Northern factories (1969 "autunno caldo", hot autumn). While conservative forces tried to roll back some of the social advances of the 1960s, and part of the military indulged in "sabre rattling" to intimidate progressive political forces, numerous left-wing activists became increasingly frustrated at social inequalities, while the myth of guerrilla (Che Guevara, the Uruguayan Tupamaros) and of the Chinese Maoist "cultural revolution" increasingly inspired extreme left-wing violent movements.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: Social protests, in which the student movement was particularly active, shook Italy during the 1969 "autunno caldo" (Hot Autumn), leading to the occupation of the Fiat factory in Turin. In March 1968, clashes occurred at La Sapienza university in Rome, during the "Battle of Valle Giulia". Mario Capanna, associated with the New Left, was one of the figures of the student movement, along with the members of "Potere Operaio" and "Autonomia Operaia" such as (Antonio Negri, Oreste Scalzone, Franco Piperno and of "Lotta Continua" such as Adriano Sofri.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: The period of the late 1960–1970s came to be known as the "Opposti Estremismi", (from left-wing and right-wing extremists riots), later renamed "anni di piombo" ("Years of Lead") because of a wave of bombings and shootings – the first victim of this period was Antonio Annarumma, a policeman, killed on 12 November 1969 in Milan during a left-wing demonstration.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: In December, four bombings struck in Rome the Monument of Vittorio Emanuele II ("Altare della Patria"), the "Banca Nazionale del Lavoro", and in Milan the "Banca Commerciale" and the "Banca Nazionale dell'Agricoltura". The later bombing, known as the Piazza Fontana bombing of 12 December 1969, killed 16 and injured 90.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: On 17 May 1972, police officer Luigi Calabresi, who was subsequently awarded a gold medal of the Italian Republic for civil valour, was assassinated in Milan. Sixteen years later, Adriano Sofri, Giorgio Pietrostefani and Ovidio Bompressi and Leonardo Marino were arrested in Milan, accused by the confession of Leonardo Marino, one of the participants in the assassination. Highly controversial, the trial concluded, after an alternance of convictions and acquittals, to their guilt.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: During a ceremony in honour of Luigi Calabresi on 17 May 1973, where the Interior Minister Mariano Rumor was present, an anarchist, Gianfranco Bertoli, threw a bomb killing four and injuring 45.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: Count Edgardo Sogno revealed in his memoirs that in July 1974, he visited the CIA station chief in Rome to inform him of the preparation of a neo-fascist coup. Asking him what the US government would do in case of such an operation, Sogno wrote that the CIA officer responsible for Italy answered him that "the United States would have supported any initiative tending to keep the communists out of government." General Maletti declared, in 2001, that he had not known about Sogno's relations to the CIA and had not been informed of the right-wing coup, known as "Golpe bianco" (White Coup), and prepared with Randolfo Pacciardi.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: General Vito Miceli, chief of the SIOS military intelligence agency from 1969 on, and head of the SID from 1970 to 1974, was arrested in 1974 on charges of "conspiracy against the state". Following his arrest, the Italian secret services were reorganized with a 24 October 1977 law in a democratic attempt to regain civilian and parliamentary control of them. The SID was divided into the current SISMI, the SISDE and the CESIS, which had a coordination role and was directly led by the President of the Council. Furthermore, a Parliamentary Committee on Secret services control (Copaco) was created at the same occasion. 1978 was the year with the most terrorist actions.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: Christian Democrat Aldo Moro was assassinated in May 1978 by the Red Brigades, a terrorist leftist group then led by Mario Moretti. Before his murder, Aldo Moro, a central figure in the Christian Democrat Party, several times Prime Minister, was trying to include the Communist Party, headed by Enrico Berlinguer, in the parliamentary majority, an operation called the "Historic Compromise". At this point, the PCI was the largest communist party in western Europe; this was largely due to its reformist orientation, to its growing independence from Moscow and to the new Eurocommunism doctrine.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: In the period of terror attacks of the late 1970s and early 1980s, the parliamentary majority was composed by the parties of the , i.e. all parties supporting the Constitution, including the Communists, who took a very strong stance against the Red Brigades and other terrorist groups; however, the Communists never took part in the government itself, which was composed by the "Pentapartito" (Christian Democrats, Socialists, Social Democrats, Liberals, and Republicans).


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: Although the 1970s in Italy was marked by violence, it was also a time of great social and economic progress. Following the civil disturbances of the 1960s, Christian Democracy and its allies in government (including the PSI) introduced a wide range of political, social, and economic reforms. Regional governments were introduced in the spring of 1970, with elected councils provided with the authority to legislate in areas like public works, town planning, social welfare, and health. Spending on the relatively poor South was significantly increased, while new laws relating to index-linked pay, public housing, and pension provision were also passed. In 1975, a law was passed entitling redundant workers to receive at least 80% of their previous salary for up to a year from a state insurance fund. Living standards also continued to rise, with wages going up by an average of about 25% a year from the early 1970s onwards, and between 1969 and 1978, average real wages rose by 72%. Various fringe benefits were raised to the extent that they amounted to an additional 50% to 60% on wages, the highest in any country in the Western world. In addition, working hours were reduced so that by the end of the decade they were lower than any other country apart from Belgium. Some categories of workers who were laid off received generous unemployment compensation which represented only a little less than full wages, often years beyond eligibility. Initially, these benefits were primarily enjoyed by industrial workers in northern Italy where the "Hot Autumn" had its greatest impact, but these benefits soon spread to other categories of workers in other areas. In 1975, the escalator clause was strengthened in wage contracts, providing a high proportion of workers with nearly 100% indexation, with quarterly revisions, thereby increasing wages nearly as fast as prices.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: A statute of worker's rights that was drafted and pushed into enactment in 1970 by the Socialist labour minister Giacomo Brodolini, greatly strengthened the authority of the trade unions in the factories, outlawed dismissal without just cause, guaranteed freedom of assembly and speech on the shop floor, forbade employers to keep records of the union or political affiliations of their workers, and prohibited hiring except through the state employment office.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: From 1957, Italian workers had partly been sheltered from the falling value of money by what was termed a "moving staircase", which automatically raised wages as prices increased. In 1975, this provision was extended so that all workers received a flat fee that automatically compensated them for as much as 75% of the previous three months' price increases. This meant in practice that money wages rose faster than the cost of living, because better-paid groups fought for extra sums to maintain their differentials, and also because various industries negotiated local and national wage deals in addition to the increments that all workers received. By 1985, the average Italian was twice as rich in real terms as he was in 1960.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: By the mid-1970s, Italy had the most generous welfare provisions in Europe, while average Italian workers were among the best paid, most protected, and best treated on the continent.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: Because of reforms carried out in the Seventies, Italian families in the Eighties had access to a far wider range of state services than before, such as recreational and sports facilities, subsidies for medicines, proper medical care, and kindergarten schools. In addition, the growth in the income of most Italian families during the Seventies and Eighties was so significant that Giuseppe De Rita wrote of this period as a "watershed in the history of the Italian family".


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: Despite these achievements, socio-economic inequalities continued to pervade Italy by the early Eighties. In 1983, it was estimated that over 18% of the population of the South lived below the official poverty line, compared with 6.9% of the population of the North and Centre.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: The economic recession went on into the mid-1980s until a set of reforms led to the independence of the Bank of Italy and a big reduction of the indexation of wages that strongly reduced inflation rates, from 20.6% in 1980 to 4.7% in 1987. The new macroeconomic and political stability resulted in a second, export-led "economic miracle", based on small and medium-sized enterprises, producing clothing, leather products, shoes, furniture, textiles, jewelry, and machine tools. As a result of this rapid expansion, in 1987 Italy overtook the UK's economy (an event known as "il sorpasso"), becoming the fourth richest nation in the world, after the US, Japan and West Germany. The Milan stock exchange increased its market capitalization more than fivefold in the space of a few years.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: Meanwhile, the PSI, which was at an all-time low, squeezed in the pincer of the historic compromise attempt between the two major parties, called on the new secretary Bettino Craxi to revive his fortunes, whose political rise represented a factor of innovation in the system of First Republic, now unable to give adequate responses to the changes taking place in Italian society.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: In the 1980s, for the first time since 1945, two governments were led by non-Christian Democrat Premiers: Republican Giovanni Spadolini and Socialist Bettino Craxi. The DC remained, however, the main force supporting the government.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: With the end of the Years of Lead, the PCI gradually increased their votes under the leadership of Enrico Berlinguer. The Socialist Party (PSI), led by Bettino Craxi, became more and more critical of the Communists and of the Soviet Union; Craxi himself pushed in favour of US President Ronald Reagan's positioning of Pershing II missiles in Italy, a move the Communists hotly contested.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: As the Socialist Party moved to more moderate positions, the ranks of the PCI increased in numbers, and the Communist Party surpassed the Christian Democracy (DC) in the European election of 1984, barely two days after Berlinguer's death, that likely drew sympathy in the population. Huge crowds attended Berlinguer's funeral. That was to be the only time the Christian Democracy was not the largest party in a nationwide election they participated in. In 1984, the Craxi government revised the 1929 Lateran Pacts with the Vatican, which concluded the role of Catholicism as Italy's state religion.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: With the "Mani Pulite" investigation, starting just one year after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the discovery of the extent of corruption, which involved most of Italy's important political parties, apart from the PCI, led the whole power structure to falter. The scandal became known as "Tangentopoli", and seemingly indestructible parties like the DC and the PSI disbanded. The Communist Party, although it had not been much worried by legal investigations, changed its name to Democratic Party of the Left. Observing the fall of the Soviet Union, it took the role of being essentially just one more democratic party in Italy. What was to follow was then called the transition to the "Second Republic".


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: Italy faced several terror attacks between 1992 and 1993 perpetrated by the Sicilian Mafia as a consequence of several life sentences pronounced during the "Maxi Trial", and of the new anti-mafia measures launched by the government. In 1992, two major dynamite attacks killed the judges Giovanni Falcone (23 May in the Capaci bombing) and Paolo Borsellino (19 July in the Via D'Amelio bombing). One year later (May–July 1993), tourist spots were attacked, such as the Via dei Georgofili in Florence, Via Palestro in Milan, and the Piazza San Giovanni in Laterano and Via San Teodoro in Rome, leaving 10 dead and 93 injured and causing severe damage to cultural heritage such as the Uffizi Gallery. The Catholic Church openly condemned the Mafia, and two churches were bombed and an anti-Mafia priest shot dead in Rome.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: From 1992 to 1997, Italy faced significant challenges as voters (disenchanted with past political paralysis, massive government debt, extensive corruption, and organized crime's considerable influence collectively called Tangentopoli after being uncovered by Mani pulite – "Clean hands") demanded political, economic, and ethical reforms. The scandals involved all major parties, but especially those in the government coalition: between 1992 and 1994 the DC underwent a severe crisis and was dissolved, splitting up into several pieces, among which were the Italian People's Party and the Christian Democratic Center. The PSI (and the other governing minor parties) completely dissolved. This "revolution" of the Italian political landscape, happened at a time when some institutional reforms (notably changes in the electoral laws intended to diminish the power of political parties) were taking place.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: In the Italian referendums of 1993, voters approved substantial changes, including moving from a proportional to a mixed-member proportional representation system (with the requirement to obtain a minimum of 4% of the national vote to obtain representation) which is largely dominated by a majoritarian electoral system and the abolishment of some ministries (some of which have however been reintroduced with only partly modified names, as the "Ministry of Agriculture" being renamed "Ministry of Agricultural Resources").


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: Major political parties, beset by scandal and loss of voter confidence, underwent far-reaching changes. The main changes in the political landscape were:


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: Berlusconi managed to ally himself to "both" the National Alliance and the Northern League, without these being allied with each other. Forza Italia teamed up with the League in the North, where they competed against National Alliance, and with National Alliance in the rest of Italy, where the League was not present. This unusual coalition configuration was caused by the deep hate between the League, which had many supporters who wanted to separate from the rest of Italy and held Rome in deep contempt, and the nationalist post-fascists; on one occasion, Bossi encouraged his supporters to go find National Alliance supporters "house by house," seemingly suggesting a lynching (which however did not actually take place).


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: The left-wing parties formed a coalition, the "Progressisti", which however did not have as clear a leader as Berlusconi. Achille Occhetto, secretary of the Democratic Party of the Left, was however considered to be its main figure.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: The remains of the Christian Democracy formed a third, centrist coalition, proposing reformist Mario Segni as their prime minister candidate. The Christian Democracy reverted to the old name "Popular Party," first used at the beginning of the 20th century, and was led by Mino Martinazzoli.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: The election saw a major turnover in the new parliament, with 452 out of 630 deputies and 213 out of 315 senators elected for the first time.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: The 1994 elections marks the beginning of the so-called "Second Republic". The transition from the first to the second Republic represented a change within the political system, rather than a change in the political system, as happened in France, as the republican constitution and institutions remained the same in force since 1948, and the three-year period 1992- 1994 was not accompanied by any constitutional changes. The term is commonly used, at a journalistic but also a scientific level, to emphasize the comparison of the Italian institutional political structure before and after the period 1992-1994, but also its reflection on important economic aspects.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: The 1994 elections also swept media magnate Silvio Berlusconi (leader of "Pole of Freedoms" coalition, which included Forza Italia, the regionalist far-right "Lega Nord" party and the far-right "Alleanza Nazionale"), into office as Prime Minister. Berlusconi, however, was forced to step down in December 1994 when the "Lega Nord" withdrew support because they disagree on the pension reform.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: The Berlusconi government was succeeded by a technical government headed by Lamberto Dini, which left office in early 1996.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: A series of centre-left coalitions dominated Italy's political landscape between 1996 and 2001, which introduced a number of progressive reforms in areas such as social security. In April 1996, national elections led to the victory of a centre-left coalition under the leadership of Romano Prodi. The Olive Tree included PDS, PPI (the largest surviving piece of the former DC), and other small parties, with "external support" from the Communist Refoundation Party (voting confidence but not entering government). Prodi's government became the third-longest to stay in power before he narrowly lost a vote of confidence, by three votes, in October 1998. Prodi's programme consisted in restoring the country's economic health, to pursue the then seemingly unreachable goal of leading the country within the strict Euro convergence criteria set at Maastricht and make the country join the Euro. He succeeded in this in little more than six months.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: His government fell in 1998 when the Communist Refoundation Party withdrew its support. This led to the formation of a new government led by Massimo D'Alema as Prime Minister. As the result of a vote of no confidence in Prodi's government, D'Alema's nomination was passed by a single vote, with the support of a loyal Communist faction (PdCI) and of some centrist MPs (UDR) led by former president of the Republic Francesco Cossiga. While D'Alema was Prime Minister, Italy took part in the NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1999. The attack was supported by Silvio Berlusconi and the centre-right opposition, but the far left strongly contested it. It was a very important test about the government loyalty to NATO and the country's foreign policy, as it concerned the first post-Communist leader of Italy and the first military action formally outside a UN mandate.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: In May 1999, the Parliament selected Carlo Azeglio Ciampi as the President of the Italian Republic. Ciampi, a former Prime Minister and Minister of the Treasury, and before the governor of the Bank of Italy, was elected on the first ballot with an easy margin over the required two-thirds votes.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: The succeeding caretaker centre-left government, including most of the same parties, was headed by Giuliano Amato (who previously served as Prime Minister in 1992–93) until the 2001 election.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: A constitutional referendum in 2001 confirmed a constitutional amendment to introduce early federalization, with residual legislative competence upon the Regions instead than upon the State.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: The May 2001 election, where both coalitions used "decoy lists" to undermine the proportional-compensation part of the electoral system, ushered a refashioned centre-right coalition, House of Freedoms dominated by Berlusconi's party, Forza Italia (29.2%) and including Alleanza Nazionale (12.5%), the Lega Nord, the Christian Democratic Center and the United Christian Democrats. The Olive Tree coalition (The Daisy (14.5%) and the Democrats of the Left (16.7%)) sat in the opposition.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: Berlusconi's II foreign policy was characterised by a strong atlanticist trend, coupled with a positive attitude towards Putin's Russia and Erdogan's Turkey.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: Berlusconi advocated the accession of Turkey to the EU (notwithstanding the opposition of coalition partner Lega Nord) and at the 2002 Rome summit a NATO-Russia Council was set up. In UN reform issues, Italy took the lead of the Uniting for Consensus group, aiming at blocking a new German seat at the UN Security Council, while advocating for a unitary EU seat


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: The 27th G8 summit, held in Genoa in July 2001 represented the first international task of the government. The huge protest, mounting to 200,000 demonstrators from all over Europe, was countered by strong police repression. Dozens were hospitalized following clashes with police and night raids by security forces on two schools housing activists and independent journalists. People taken into custody after the raids have alleged severe abuse at the hands of police. One demonstrator was shot dead.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: Berlusconi made Italy take part in the Afghanistan war (2001) and in the US-led military coalition in Iraq in 2003, although always stressing that Italy was taking part in a "peace operation" and not in a war operation outside the UN framework (prohibited by art.11 of the Italian Constitution). The move was widely unpopular (especially in the case of Iraq), and was met by protests and manifestations.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: Italy's participation in the Iraq war, with the control over the Nassiriya sector was marked by the 2003 Nasiriyah bombing, in which 17 soldiers were killed, and by an incident with the US, concerning the death, by friendly fire, of a SISMI agent, Nicola Calipari, during the March 2005 rescue of Giuliana Sgrena, a reporter from "Il Manifesto".


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: In labour law, the government introduced extensive flexibility through the 30/2003 Act. In the field of justice, a reform of the Right of self-defense Act was introduced to please the Lega Nord. The 2002 Bossi-Fini Act represented a restrictive approach to immigration, while the 2006 Fini-Giovanardi Act strengthened the prohibitionary approach to drug policy. A point-system driver's licence was introduced in 2003, and compulsory conscription was replaced by a professional army since 2005. A constitutional reform including federalization and strengthened executive powers, passed in the Parliament, was rejected by a confirmation referendum in 2006.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: Berlusconi's term was widely criticised for the approval of "ad personam" (personal)laws (usually named from the rapporteur minister or MP), especially in the field of justice, such as:


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: Internally, Berlusconi set up the Mitrokhin Commission, directed by senator Paolo Guzzanti (Forza Italia), to investigate on alleged KGB ties by left-wing (then-opposition) politicians. The Commission, closed in March 2006 without producing a final report, was very controversial, in particular after claiming that Romano Prodi, at that time Prime minister of Italy, and former President of the European Commission, had been "KGB's man in Italy." One of the Senator Guzzanti's informants, Mario Scaramella, was arrested at the end of December 2006 for defamation and arms-trade.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: A new electoral law was established in 2005 by the "Calderoli Law", and it is a form of semi-proportional representation. A party presents its own closed list and it can join other parties in alliances. The coalition which receives a plurality automatically wins at least 26 seats. Respecting this condition, seats are divided between coalitions, and subsequently to party lists, using the largest remainder method with a Hare quota. To receive seats, a party must overcome the barrage of 8% of the vote if it contests a single race, or of 3% of the vote if it runs in alliance. The change in the electoral law was strongly requested by the UDC, and finally agreed by Berlusconi, although criticised (including by political scientist Giovanni Sartori) for its comeback to proportionalism and its timing, less than one year before general elections.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: Provision was also included, on the input of Mirko Tremaglia, to ease the vote of Italians resident abroad; paradoxically, Italians abroad proved crucial in securing centre-left victory in 2006 elections.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: Romano Prodi, with a centre-left coalition (The Union), won the April 2006 general election by a very narrow margin due to Calderoli new electoral law, although Silvio Berlusconi first refused to acknowledge defeat. Prodi's coalition proved to be extremely frail, as the two-vote margin in the Senate allowed almost any party in the coalition to veto legislation and political views inside the coalition spanned from the left-wing communist parties to the centrist Christian Democrats.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: In foreign policy, the Prodi II Cabinet continued the engagement in Afghanistan, under UN command, while withdrawing troops from post-invasion Iraq. The major effort of foreign minister Massimo D'Alema concerned the aftermath of the 2006 Lebanon War, being the first to offer troops to the UN for the constitution of the UNIFIL force, and assuming its command in February 2007.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: Less than a year after he had won the elections, on 21 February 2007, Prodi tendered his resignation to Head of State Giorgio Napolitano after the government was defeated in the Senate by 2 ballots in a vote on foreign policy. On 24 February, President Napolitano invited him to return to office and face a vote of confidence.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: Major causes of friction inside the coalition were, the 2006 pardon Act (criticised by the right and by the IDV party), a draft bill to establish civil unions (vetoed by Christian Democrats), Italy's continued involvement in Afghanistan (strongly opposed by left-wing parties), and finally the much publicized house-arrest of Clemente Mastella's wife (then a prominent politician at the regional level) over a corruption scandal. Mastella's party, UDEUR, held just enough seats in the Senate that his eventual decision to withdraw its support for the government meant the end of the legislature on 6 February 2008. Mastella, who also resigned from his office as Minister of Justice, cited the lack of personal support from his coalition partners' as one of the reasons behind his decision, together with a proposed reform of the electoral system which would have made it difficult for small parties like his own to gain seats in the Italian Parliament.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: Berlusconi won the last snap elections in 2008, with the People of Freedom party (fusion of his previous "Forza Italia" party and of Fini's "Alleanza Nazionale") against Walter Veltroni of the Democratic Party.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: The electoral campaign was waged by Berlusconi on the tones of criminal insecurity brought in the country by the 2006 pardon act, on the Naples waste management issue (although this will remain haunting the government in the following years), on the need to avoid bankruptcy of Alitalia or its takeover by Air France, on the need to limit the use of wiretapping by prosecutors and magistrates to avoid judicial prosecution of citizens, and on the abolition of the local council property tax.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: The 2008 Lodo Alfano Act (declared unconstitutional in 2009) granted immunity from prosecution to the four highest political offices in Italy, including Berlusconi. The 2009 Maroni decree (dubbed "security package") includes a set of measures against criminality and illegal immigration, allowing for the use of private patrols (however with modest actual impact), criminalisation of stalking and compulsory incarceration for sex offenses. The 2009 "fiscal shield" provided for the regularisation of capitals illegally detained abroad; local council property tax was abolished the same year.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: A Treaty of Friendship was signed between Italy and Libya in 2008 in Benghazi. The treaty provides for the closure of colonial contentious, upon investments from Italy for 5 bln € in 20 years in infrastructure in Libya; for the mutual commitment not to act in a hostile way (criticised as not legally compliant with Italy's NATO obligations). Libyan Dictator Muammar al-Gaddafi subsequently visited Rome in June, July and August 2009, sparkling controversies for his initiatives and speeches. The Berlusconi government was criticised for the lack of firmness toward the Libyan autocracy and the lack of requests of respect of human rights.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: The case of Eluana Englaro (who had been comatose for 17 years) re-ignited the debate on the right to die in Italy. After the family of Eluana Englaro succeeded in having her right to die recognised by the judges and getting doctors to stop her forced feeding in the way established by the court, the government issued a legally controversial decree to stop the doctor from letting her die, thrusting Italy into a constitutional crisis when the President Giorgio Napolitano refused to sign the decree. The crisis was defused by Eluana's final death.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: The 2009 L'Aquila earthquake caused the death of 308 persons and made about 65,000 homeless. Berlusconi made a point of honour of the reconstruction, although this was accompanied by criticisms, especially by the inhabitants of L'Aquila. The 35th G8 summit of 2009 was hastily moved from La Maddalena to L'Aquila in an effort to promote reconstruction.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: On 13 December 2009 Berlusconi was hit in the face with an alabaster statuette of Milan Cathedral after a rally in Milan's "Piazza Duomo", suffering facial and teeth injuries. The attacker was found to have a history of mental illness but no previous criminal record


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: Between 2009 and 2010, Berlusconi was involved in a prostitution scandal leading to his divorce: he was revealed to having had close acquaintance with pre-18-year-old girls, and several call girls presented proofs of having had sex with him and having been paid for that. In one case, Berlusconi was accused of using his influence to obtain the release of a 17-year-old Moroccan girl, of his acquaintance, who was arrested for theft; Berlusconi pretended she was a close relative of Hosni Mubarak.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: In 2010, Berlusconi's party saw the splintering of Gianfranco Fini's new faction, which formed a parliamentary group and voted against him in a no-confidence vote on 14 December 2010. Berlusconi's government was able to avoid no-confidence thanks to support from sparse MPs, but lost a consistent majority in the lower Chamber. A controversial university reform was passed in late 2010 and carries the name of Education minister Mariastella Gelmini.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: Berlusconi's already low international credibility fell further in 2011 during the European sovereign-debt crisis. Financial markets showed their disapproval through an unsustainable increase of spreads between Italian and German government bond yields. Berlusconi resigned in November 2011; he later blamed German chancellor Angela Merkel.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: On 12 November 2011, Mario Monti was invited by President Giorgio Napolitano to form a new technocratic government following Berlusconi's resignation. Monti's government was made up of non-political figures but received very wide support in Parliament, both on the centre-right and on the centre-left; the Northern League was in opposition. Monti proceeded to implement structural reforms and to cut government expenses.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: After the general election held on 24 and 25 February 2013, the centre-left alliance Italy Common Good led by the Democratic Party obtained a clear majority of seats in the Chamber of Deputies, thanks to a majority bonus that has effectively trebled the number of seats assigned to the winning force, while in the popular vote it narrowly defeated the centre-right alliance of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Close behind, the new anti-establishment Five Star Movement of comedian Beppe Grillo became the third force, clearly ahead of the centrist coalition of outgoing Prime Minister Mario Monti. In the Senate, no political group or party won an outright majority, resulting in a hung parliament.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: On 22 April 2013, the President of the Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, after his re-election and consultations with the political forces, gave to the vice-secretary of the Democratic Party, Enrico Letta, the task of forming a government, because Pier Luigi Bersani, leader of the winning centre-left coalition Italy Common Good, could not form a government because it did not have a majority in the Senate.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: In the European migrant crisis of the 2010s, Italy was the entry point and leading destination for most asylum seekers entering the EU. From 2013 to 2018, the country took in over 700,000 migrants and refugees, mainly from sub-Saharan Africa, which caused strain on the public purse and a surge in the support for far-right or Eurosceptic political parties.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: Letta's cabinet lasted until 22 February 2014, as the government fell apart after the Democratic Party retired its support of Letta in favour of Matteo Renzi, the mayor of Florence and nicknamed "il Rottamatore" ("The Scrapper", or "The Wrecker"). Renzi succeeded Letta as Prime Minister at the head of a new grand coalition government with Democratic Party, New Centre-Right, Civic Choice, and a number of minor parties. The Renzi Cabinet is the youngest government of Italy up to date, with an average age of 47. In addition, it is also the first in which the number of female ministers is equal to the number of male ministers.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: On 31 January 2015 Sergio Mattarella, judge of the Constitutional Court, former DC minister and former member of the PD, was elected President of the Italian Republic at the fourth ballot with 665 votes out of 1,009, with support from the government parties, Left Ecology Freedom, and non-party independents.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: Mattarella was officially endorsed by the Democratic Party, after his name was put forward by the Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. Mattarella replaced Giorgio Napolitano, who had served for nine years, the longest presidency in the history of the Italian Republic.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: The Renzi cabinet had several new laws passed: labour was reformed ("Jobs act"), same-sex unions were recognized, and a new electoral system was approved (labelled "Italicum"). The latter, however, was eventually abolished by the Constitutional Court. The government also tried to amend the Constitution to reform the composition and powers of the Parliament: however, when the voters were called to confirm or reject the reform through referendum, the majority (59%) voted against it.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: Renzi and his government resigned and President Mattarella appointed new Prime Minister, Renzi's minister of Foreign Affairs Paolo Gentiloni, who led Italy until the 2018 Italian general election, where the first party of Parliament become the anti-establishment Five Star Movement.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: Through an alliance with Matteo Salvini's eurosceptical Lega Nord , Five Star Movement proposed to President Mattarella the appointment of Giuseppe Conte as new Prime Minister of a coalition government. After a failed attempt, caused by the veto of President Mattarella to the appointment of Paolo Savona as Minister of Finance, Conte formed the new government (Conte I Cabinet).


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: However in August 2019, after the 2019 European Parliament election where Lega Nord exceeded the Five Star Movement, and the increase of the tension between the political parties, Lega Nord proposed a no-confidence vote versus Conte, so the Prime Minister resigned. After new consultations, President Mattarella reappointed Conte as Prime Minister in a coalition government between the Five Star Movement and the Democratic Party, led by the new Secretary Nicola Zingaretti (Conte II Cabinet).


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: In 2020, Italy was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, along with several other countries. The Italian government implemented restrictive measures of social distancing and lockdown with the aim to slow down contagion. In January 2021, after some week of tension, the Conte II government lost the support of Italia Viva, the political party of former Prime Minister Renzi, so Conte, after some attempts to remain at the head of government, has to resign.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: President Mattarella, because of the severe nature of the economic and pandemic crises, appointed a new Prime Minister of a grand coalition government, former President of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, who led a cabinet with the support of all political parties in Parliament, except the right-wing party Fratelli d'Italia.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: Thanks to a massive influx of vaccine doses, it was possible to accelerate the vaccination campaign against COVID-19 pandemic (with 85% of the population over-12 vaccinated at the end of December 2021). The National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) was also drawn up and started to apply, a document that established the intended use of the Next Generation EU funds and loans due to Italy.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: In January 2022, Italian President Sergio Mattarella was re-elected to serve a second consecutive seven-year term.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: On 21 July 2022, following a government crisis which ended with FI, League and the M5S deciding to withdraw their support to the government, Prime Minister Draghi resigned. President Sergio Mattarella concequently dissolved the Parliament and called a snap election, which resulted in the centre-right coalition gaining an absolute majority of seats.


title: History of the Italian Republic

text: On 22 October 2022, Giorgia Meloni was sworn in as Italy's first female prime minister. Her Brothers of Italy party formed a right-wing government with the far-right League and centre-right of ex-prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's party.


title: Kamil Glik

text: Kamil Jacek Glik (Polish pronunciation: ; born 3 February 1988) is a Polish professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Serie B club Benevento and the Poland national team.


title: Kamil Glik

text: The previous clubs Glik played for include Piast Gliwice from 2008 to 2010, Palermo from 2010 to 2011, Torino from 2011 to 2016 and Monaco from 2017 to 2020, the latter two of which he was appointed captain of the team. He represented Poland at UEFA Euro 2016, 2018 FIFA World Cup, Euro 2020 and the 2022 World Cup.


title: Kamil Glik

text: Kamil Glik's paternal grandfather, Walter Glück, was Upper Silesian, he was forcibly conscripted into the Wehrmacht. After the war, he stayed in what then became Poland. Glik therefore also holds German citizenship in addition to his Polish citizenship. In his German documents his surname is written out in German version "Glück" instead of the polonized version "Glik". Despite this, Glik has repeatedly said that he does not feel any connection with Germany and considers himself 100% Polish. He has a daughter with his wife Marta, whom he had known since elementary school.


title: Kamil Glik

text: Glik began his career in the youth ranks of "MOSiR Jastrzębie Zdrój" and WSP Wodzisław Śląski, then moved on loan to "LKS Silesia Lubomia". In 2006, he moved from WSP Wodzisław Śląski to Horadada in Spain, where he was noticed by Real Madrid and registered with the club's "C" team. He played there for two seasons, until 2008.


title: Kamil Glik

text: On 6 August 2008, he signed a four-year contract with Polish top division side Piast Gliwice. He made his debut on 30 August 2008, when he came on as a substitute. Subsequently, he became a regular in the team's starting eleven. He played 26 games in his first season with the club, and he scored 2 goals in 28 games in the 2009–10 season.


title: Kamil Glik

text: At the end of the season it was reported that he had begun talks with Italian side U.S. Città di Palermo; on 7 July 2010 he signed with Sicilian club, who purchased him outright on a five-year contract. The transfer was finalised by the Lega Serie A after seven days.


title: Kamil Glik

text: He made his debut with the "Rosaneri" in the 2010–11 UEFA Europa League play-off round against Slovenia's Maribor (won 3–0), played as a starter. It was also his official debut in an international club competition. Following his debut he was almost never included in the first team, and until the winter break, only collected three more appearances in the group stage of the Europa League.


title: Kamil Glik

text: A few days before the official reopening of the transfer market, Palermo granted an exemption and allowed him to train – with a recovery date set for 28 December – with his new team, Bari. He moved to Bari until the end of season, strongly backed by the coach Giampiero Ventura. The contract was filed on 4 January 2011, and after the resumption of the league, 6 January, he was deployed as a starter in the Puglia derby, Lecce Bari (0–1), his debut in the Italian top division. With the "Galletti" he was a starter, playing 16 games in the league and one in Coppa Italia. In the 35th round, Bari Roma (2–3), he earnt a red card and a subsequent three-match ban which effectively concluded his season. He returned to Palermo, but was not called up for the summer retreat, and was then put on the market.


title: Kamil Glik

text: On 12 July 2011, after having already supported Torino's training camp, he transferred to Turin in a co-ownership deal, in Serie B, for €300,000.


title: Kamil Glik

text: He made his debut on 13 August in Torino Lumezzane, (1–0) in the second round of Coppa Italia, played as a starter. He scored his first goal in the 34th round, in the match Torino - Reggina, later suspended due to bad weather (the conclusion of the game did not change the result). At the end of the season, he was promoted to Serie A, having played 23 games in the league (with 2 goals) and one in Coppa Italia.


title: Kamil Glik

text: On 31 October 2012 he scored his first goal in Serie A in the tenth day of the league away to Lazio, opening the scoring with a header following a corner. The match finished 1–1. He played his first derby in the 2012–13 season, collecting two appearances and as many expulsions (the first player in the history of the league to be sent-off in both legs of a derby) and became an idol of the Torino fans. On 20 June, Torino acquired his remaining contract from Palermo for a fee of €1.5 million, resolving the co-ownership.


title: Kamil Glik

text: For the 2013–14 season, Glik was appointed captain of the team after the departure of Rolando Bianchi. On 9 December 2013, he scored the winning goal, 1–0, against Lazio, in Turin. He ended the season with 34 league appearances – which concluded with Torino's qualification to the UEFA Europa League after Parma failed to obtain a UEFA license – and two goals, plus an appearance in the Coppa Italia. On 25 May 2014, he renewed his contract until 2017.


title: Kamil Glik

text: On 31 July 2014, he made his debut with the "Granata" in international competition, playing the first leg of the third qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League, won 3–0 against the Swedes Brommapojkarna. On 24 September 2014, during an away fixture against Cagliari, he scored the momentary 1–1 in his hundredth game for Torino; Torino would win the match against the Sardinians 2–1.


title: Kamil Glik

text: On 21 December 2014, at the Stadio Olimpico in Turin, he scored his first brace in Serie A during a 2–1 comeback win over Genoa. On 10 January 2015, he scored the equaliser, 1–1, against Milan and on 1 March, he scored the winning goal, 1–0, against Napoli. On 19 March, he scored his first goal in the Europa League with a header during the round of 16 against Zenit Saint Petersburg. His goal brought Torino to 1–0, but not enough to overcome the 2 goal deficit from the first leg. On 5 April, he scored the second goal in a momentary 2–0 lead over Atalanta (the game would end 2–1). On 20 December 2015, he renewed with the Piedmontese club until 2020.


title: Kamil Glik

text: On 4 July 2016, Glik was sold to Monaco for a reported fee of €11 million plus €4 million in bonuses, signing a four-year contract. In an official statement on the Torino website, the club stated "It has been five wonderful years, intense, full of emotions and mutual satisfaction. President Cairo and the whole Torino FC salute Glik with great affection, wishing him the best that his career can offer."


title: Kamil Glik

text: On 27 September 2016, Glik fired in a half-volley from the edge of the penalty box four minutes into second-half stoppage time to cancel out Javier Hernández's goal, enabling Monaco to snatch a 1–1 home draw in their 2016–17 UEFA Champions League Group E encounter against Bayer Leverkusen with their first and only shot on target of the match.


title: Kamil Glik

text: Glik played a main part in the Monaco side which won the 2016–17 Ligue 1 title making 36 appearances and scoring 6 goals.


title: Kamil Glik

text: On 11 August 2020, newly promoted Serie A club Benevento announced the signing of Glik from Monaco on a three-year contract.


title: Kamil Glik

text: Glik made 14 appearances and scored three goals for the Poland under-21. In 2010, he made his debut for the senior national team, after originally being called up without debuting in a game on 18 December 2009. Glik was the first Piast Gliwice player to ever be called up to Polish national team. He made his debut on 20 January 2010 in the King's Cup against Thailand, scoring 43 minutes into his debut, won 3–1.


title: Kamil Glik

text: On 17 October 2012, he scored the equalizing goal in a 2014 World Cup Qualifying game against England.


title: Kamil Glik

text: He played an important role in Poland's Euro 2016 qualifying campaign and Euro 2016 campaign. He made the most clearances out of any other player in the tournament, and scored 2 penalties in two penalty shoot-outs; one of them in a 5–4 win against Switzerland, and the other in a 5–3 defeat to eventual champions Portugal.


title: Kamil Glik

text: In June 2018, he became part of the Polish squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. In May 2021, he was included in the final squad for the postponed UEFA Euro 2020. However, Poland left the two competitions from the group stage.


title: Kamil Glik

text: On 10 November 2022, he received a call-up for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. On 22 November, he played his 100th match for Poland, which was the first game in the World Cup against Mexico.


title: Kamil Glik

text: Glik is a tall centre back with great physicality, but also good mobility; his biggest strength is undoubtedly his aerial ability, both in marking and on set pieces in the opposing area. He is also known for his leadership on the pitch.


title: Sodium sulfite

text: Sodium sulfite (sodium sulphite) is the inorganic compound with the chemical formula NaSO. A white, water-soluble solid, it is used commercially as an antioxidant and preservative. A heptahydrate is also known but it is less useful because of its greater susceptibility toward oxidation by air.


title: Sodium sulfite

text: Sodium sulfite can be prepared by treating a solution of sodium hydroxide with sulfur dioxide. When conducted in warm water, NaSO initially precipitates as a white solid. With more SO, the solid dissolves to give the disulfite, which crystallizes upon cooling.


title: Sodium sulfite

text: Sodium sulfite is made industrially by treating sulfur dioxide with a solution of sodium carbonate. The overall reaction is:


title: Sodium sulfite

text: Sodium sulfite is primarily used in the pulp and paper industry. It has been also applied in the thermomechanical conversion of wood to fibres ("defibration") for producing medium density fibreboards (MDF).


title: Sodium sulfite

text: As an oxygen scavenger agent, it is used to treat water being fed to steam boilers to avoid corrosion problems, in the photographic industry, it protects developer solutions from oxidation and (as hypo clear solution) to wash fixer (sodium thiosulfate) from film and photo-paper emulsions.


title: Sodium sulfite

text: As a reducing agent it is used in the textile industry as a bleaching, desulfurizing, and dechlorinating agent (e.g. in swimming pools). Its reducing properties are exploited in its use as a preservative to prevent dried fruit from discoloring, and for preserving meats.


title: Sodium sulfite

text: It is used as a reagent in sulfonation and sulfomethylation agent. It is used in the production of sodium thiosulfate.


title: Sodium sulfite

text: Sodium sulfite is primarily used as a mild reducing agent. The heptahydrate crystals effloresce in warm dry air. Heptahydrate crystals also oxidize in air to form sodium sulfate. The anhydrous form is more resistant to oxidation by air.


title: Sodium sulfite

text: Sodium bisulfite, NaHSO, is mixture of salts that dissolve in water to give solutions composed of sodium and bisulfite ions.


title: Sodium sulfite

text: According to X-ray crystallography sodium sulfite heptahydrate features pyramidal SO centers. The S-O distances are 1.50 and the O-S-O angles are near 106º.


title: Pseudopodia

text: A pseudopod or pseudopodium (plural: pseudopods or pseudopodia) is a temporary arm-like projection of a eukaryotic cell membrane that is emerged in the direction of movement. Filled with cytoplasm, pseudopodia primarily consist of actin filaments and may also contain microtubules and intermediate filaments. Pseudopods are used for motility and ingestion. They are often found in amoebas.


title: Pseudopodia

text: Different types of pseudopodia can be classified by their distinct appearances. Lamellipodia are broad and thin. Filopodia are slender, thread-like, and are supported largely by microfilaments. Lobopodia are bulbous and amoebic. Reticulopodia are complex structures bearing individual pseudopodia which form irregular nets. Axopodia are the phagocytosis type with long, thin pseudopods supported by complex microtubule arrays enveloped with cytoplasm; they respond rapidly to physical contact.


title: Pseudopodia

text: Some pseudopodial cells are able to use multiple types of pseudopodia depending on the situation: Most of them use a combination of lamellipodia and filopodia to migrate (such as metastatic cancer cells). The human foreskin fibroblasts can either use lamellipodia- or lobopodia-based migration in a 3D matrix depending on the matrix elasticity.


title: Pseudopodia

text: Generally, several pseudopodia arise from the surface of the body, ("polypodial", for example, "Amoeba proteus"), or a single pseudopod may form on the surface of the body ("monopodial", such as "Entamoeba histolytica").


title: Pseudopodia

text: To move towards a target, the cell uses chemotaxis. It senses extracellular signalling molecules, chemoattractants (e.g. cAMP for "Dictyostelium" cells), to extend pseudopodia at the membrane area facing the source of these molecules.


title: Pseudopodia

text: The chemoattractants bind to G protein-coupled receptors, which activate GTPases of the Rho family (e.g. Cdc42, Rac) via G-proteins.


title: Pseudopodia

text: Rho GTPases are able to activate WASp which in turn activate Arp2/3 complex which serve as nucleation sites for actin polymerization. The actin polymers then push the membrane as they grow, forming the pseudopod. The pseudopodium can then adhere to a surface via its adhesion proteins (e.g. integrins), and then pull the cell's body forward via contraction of an actin-myosin complex in the pseudopod. This type of locomotion is called Amoeboid movement.


title: Pseudopodia

text: Rho GTPases can also activate phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) which recruit PIP to the membrane at the leading edge and detach the PIP-degrading enzyme PTEN from the same area of the membrane. PIP then activate GTPases back via GEF stimulation. This serves as a feedback loop to amplify and maintain the presence of local GTPase at the leading edge.


title: Pseudopodia

text: Otherwise, pseudopodia can't grow on other sides of the membrane than the leading edge because myosin filaments prevent them to extend. These myosin filaments are induced by cyclic GMP in "D. discoideum" or Rho kinase in neutrophils for example.


title: Pseudopodia

text: Different physical parameters were shown to regulate the length and time-scale of pseudopodia formation. For example, an increase in membrane tension inhibits actin assembly and protrusion formation. It was demonstrated that the lowered negative surface charge on the inner surface of the plasma membrane generates protrusions via activation of the Ras-PI3K/AKT/mTOR signalling pathway.


title: Pseudopodia

text: In the case there is no extracellular cue, all moving cells navigate in random directions, but they can keep the same direction for some time before turning. This feature allows cells to explore large areas for colonization or searching for a new extracellular cue.


title: Pseudopodia

text: In "Dictyostelium" cells, a pseudopodium can form either "de novo" as normal, or from an existing pseudopod, forming a Y-shaped pseudopodium.


title: Pseudopodia

text: The Y-shaped pseudopods are used by "Dictyostelium" to advance relatively straight forward by alternating between retraction of the left or right branch of the pseudopod. The "de novo" pseudopodia form at different sides than pre-existing ones, they are used by the cells to turn.


title: Pseudopodia

text: Y-shaped pseudopods are more frequent than "de novo" ones, which explain the preference of the cell to keep moving to the same direction. This persistence is modulated by PLA2 and cGMP signalling pathways.


title: Pseudopodia

text: Pseudopods can be classified into several varieties according to the number of projections (monopodia and polypodia), and according to their appearance:


title: Pseudopodia

text: Lamellipodia are broad and flat pseudopodia used in locomotion. They are supported by microfilaments which form at the leading edge, creating a mesh-like internal network.


title: Pseudopodia

text: Filopodia (or filose pseudopods) are slender and filiform with pointed ends, consisting mainly of ectoplasm. These formations are supported by microfilaments which, unlike the filaments of lamellipodia with their net-like actin, form loose bundles by cross-linking. This formation is partly due to bundling proteins such as fimbrins and fascins.


title: Pseudopodia

text: Filopodia are observed in some animal cells: in part of Filosa (Rhizaria), in "Testaceafilosia" , in Vampyrellidae and Pseudosporida (Rhizaria) and in Nucleariida (Opisthokonta).


title: Pseudopodia

text: Lobopodia (or lobose pseudopods) are bulbous, short, and blunt in form. These finger-like, tubular pseudopodia contain both ectoplasm and endoplasm. They can be found in different kind of cells, notably in Lobosa and other Amoebozoa and in some Heterolobosea (Excavata).


title: Pseudopodia

text: High-pressure lobopodia can also be found in human fibroblasts travelling through a complex network of 3D matrix (e.g. mammalian dermis, cell-derived matrix). Contrarily to other pseudopodia using the pressure exerted by actin polymerization on the membrane to extend, fibroblast lobopods use the nuclear piston mechanism consisting in pulling the nucleus via actomyosin contractility to push the cytoplasm that in turn push the membrane, leading to pseudopod formation. To occur, this lobopodia-based fibroblast migration needs nesprin 3, integrins, RhoA, ROCK and myosin II.


title: Pseudopodia

text: Otherwise, lobopods are often accompanied with small lateral blebs forming along the side of the cell, probably due to the high intracellular pressure during lobopodia formation increasing the frequency of plasma membrane-cortex rupture.


title: Pseudopodia

text: Reticulopodia (or reticulose pseudopods), are complex formations in which individual pseudopods are merged and form irregular nets. The primary function of reticulopodia, also known as myxopodia, is food ingestion, with locomotion a secondary function. Reticulopods are typical of Foraminifera, Chlorarachnea, "Gromia" and "Filoreta" (Rhizaria).


title: Pseudopodia

text: Axopodia (also known as actinopodia) are narrow pseudopodia containing complex arrays of microtubules enveloped by cytoplasm. Axopodia are mostly responsible for phagocytosis by rapidly retracting in response to physical contact. Principally, these pseudopodia are food collecting structures. Also used in passive transportation by expanding their surface area , and being carried with the water stream. They are observed in "Radiolaria" and "Heliozoa".


title: Star Health and Allied Insurance

text: Star Health and Allied Insurance Co Ltd is an Indian multinational health insurance company headquartered in Tamil Nadu, Chennai. The company provides services in health, personal accident and overseas travel insurance, directly as well as through various channels like agents, brokers and online. Star Health is also prominently into bancassurance having long standing relationship with various banks.


title: Star Health and Allied Insurance

text: Star Health Insurance launched its initial public offering (IPO) in December 2021. After the issue was undersubscribed, it reduced the IPO size to .


title: Star Health and Allied Insurance

text: Star Health has underwritten a gross written premium of Rs.6865 Cr during the FY 2019-20 and has built up a promising path with an appreciable net worth of Rs.1889 Cr, as on 31 March 2020.


title: Johnson Wax Headquarters

text: Johnson Wax Headquarters is the world headquarters and administration building of S. C. Johnson & Son in Racine, Wisconsin. Designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright for the company's president, Herbert F. "Hib" Johnson, the building was constructed from 1936 to 1939. Its distinctive "lily pad" columns and other innovations revived Wright's career at a point when he was losing influence. Also known as the Johnson Wax Administration Building, it and the nearby 14-story Johnson Wax Research Tower (built 1944–1950) were designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1976 as Administration Building and Research Tower, S.C. Johnson and Son.


title: Johnson Wax Headquarters

text: The Johnson Wax Headquarters were in an industrial zone, and Wright decided to create a sealed environment lit from above, as he had done with the Larkin Administration Building. The building features Wright's interpretation of the streamlined Art Moderne style popular in the 1930s. In a break with his earlier Prairie School structures, the building features many curvilinear forms and required over 200 different curved "Cherokee red" bricks to create the sweeping curves of the interior and exterior. The mortar between the bricks is raked in traditional Wright style to accentuate the horizontality of the building. The warm, reddish hue of the bricks was used in the polished concrete floor slab as well; the white stone trim and white dendriform (tree-like) columns create a subtle yet striking contrast. All of the furniture, manufactured by Steelcase, was designed for the building by Wright and it echoed many of the building's design features.


title: Johnson Wax Headquarters

text: The entrance is within the structure, penetrating the building on one side with a covered carport on the other. The carport is supported by short versions of the steel-reinforced dendriform concrete columns that appear in the Great Workroom. The low carport ceiling creates a compression of space that is released when entering the main building, where the dendriform columns rise over two stories tall; the interior space thus appears larger than it is. Compression and release of space were concepts that Wright used in many of his designs, including the playroom in his Oak Park Home and Studio, the Unity Temple in Oak Park, Illinois, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City, and many others.


title: Johnson Wax Headquarters

text: Throughout the Great Workroom, which has no internal walls, the thin, white dendriform columns rise to circular "lily pad" tops that form the ceiling, with the spaces between the circles consisting of skylights made of Pyrex glass tubing. At the corners, where the walls usually meet the ceiling, the glass tubes continue up and over and connect to the skylights, creating a clerestory effect and admitting a soft light. The Great Workroom is the largest expanse of space in the building, and was intended for the secretaries of the Johnson Wax company, with a mezzanine for administrators.


title: Johnson Wax Headquarters

text: In the Great Workroom, the columns expand from 9 inches (23 cm) in diameter at the bottom to "lily pads" 18 feet (5.5 m) in diameter at the top; skeptical building inspectors required that a test column be built and loaded with twelve tons of material. After the test column proved capable of supporting the specified load, Wright had the load progressively increased. Only at sixty tons load did any crack appear.


title: Johnson Wax Headquarters

text: The building was completed in 1939, considerably over-budget. It proved very difficult to properly seal the glass tubing of the clerestories and roof, and leaks occurred. The problem was not solved until the company replaced the top layers of tubes with skylights consisting of angled sheets of fiberglass and specially molded sheets of Plexiglas with painted dark lines to resemble the original joints in a "trompe-l'œil" when viewed from the ground.


title: Johnson Wax Headquarters

text: Wright designed not only the building but its furniture. His chair design originally had only three legs, supposedly to encourage better posture (because one would have to keep both feet on the ground at all times to sit in it). However, the chair proved unstable, tipping very easily. Purportedly, Wright redesigned the chairs after Herbert Johnson asked him to sit in one, and he fell out of it. Johnson Wax has continued to use Wright's furniture.


title: Johnson Wax Headquarters

text: Despite these problems, Johnson was pleased with the building and later commissioned the Research Tower and a house (known as Wingspread) from Wright.


title: Johnson Wax Headquarters

text: The Research Tower was added in 1950 to the Administration Building, and provides a vertical counterpoint to its horizontality. It is one of only two existing high-rise buildings by Wright. Cantilevered from a giant stack, the tower's floor slabs spread out like tree branches, providing for vertical segmentation of departments. Elevator and stairway channels run up the reinforced concrete core, which Wright called a tap root. This single core was based on an idea that he had proposed in 1929 for the St. Mark's Tower, and which he used again in 1952 in the Price Tower in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Freed from peripheral supporting elements, the tower rises from a garden and three fountain pools that surround its base while a court on three sides provides parking for employees.


title: Johnson Wax Headquarters

text: The Research Tower was taken out of use in 1980 because it no longer met fire safety codes; it only has a single 29-inch wide twisting staircase, and originally had no sprinklers because Wright thought them ugly. SC Johnson considered proposals to retrofit the tower to meet these codes, including one submitted by apprentices from Taliesin, but all were ultimately rejected out of concern it would mar the appearance of the tower. The company is committed to preserving it as a symbol of its history. In 2013, an extensive 12-month restoration was completed. The tower was relit on December 21, 2013 to mark the winter solstice, and S.C. Johnson & Son announced that it would be opened for public tours for the first time in its history. The research labs shown on the tour have been set up to appear frozen in time, including beakers, scales, centrifuges, archival photographs and letters about the building.


title: Johnson Wax Headquarters

text: The Johnson Wax buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places, and the Administration Building and the Research Tower were chosen by the American Institute of Architects as two of seventeen buildings by the architect to be retained as examples of his contribution to American culture. In addition, in 1974 the Administration Building was awarded a Twenty-Five Year Award by the American Institute of Architects and in 1976, both were designated National Historic Landmarks.


title: Appeal

text: In law, an appeal is the process in which cases are reviewed by a higher authority, where parties request a formal change to an official decision. Appeals function both as a process for error correction as well as a process of clarifying and interpreting law. Although appellate courts have existed for thousands of years, common law countries did not incorporate an affirmative right to appeal into their jurisprudence until the 19th century.


title: Appeal

text: Appellate courts and other systems of error correction have existed for many millennia. During the first dynasty of Babylon, Hammurabi and his governors served as the highest appellate courts of the land. Ancient Roman law recognized the right to appeal in the Valerian and Porcian laws since 509 BC. Later it employed a complex hierarchy of appellate courts, where some appeals would be heard by the emperor. Additionally, appellate courts have existed in Japan since at least the Kamakura Shogunate (1185–1333 CE). During this time, the Shogunate established "hikitsuke", a high appellate court to aid the state in adjudicating lawsuits.


title: Appeal

text: Although some scholars argue that "the right to appeal is itself a substantive liberty interest", the notion of a right to appeal is a relatively recent advent in common law jurisdictions. In fact, commentators have observed that common law jurisdictions were particularly "slow to incorporate a right to appeal into either its civil or criminal jurisprudence".


title: Appeal

text: The idea of an appeal from court to court (as distinguished from court directly to the Crown) was unheard of in early English courts. English common law courts eventually developed the writs of error and certiorari as routes to appellate relief, but both types of writs were severely limited in comparison to modern appeals in terms of availability, scope of review, and remedies afforded. For example, writs of error were originally not available as a matter of right and were issued only upon the recommendation of the Attorney General (which was initially discretionary but by modern times was regularly granted). Certiorari was originally available only for summary offences; in the early 19th century, certiorari became available for indictable offences, but only to obtain relief before judgment. Due to widespread dissatisfaction with writs (resulting in the introduction of at least 28 separate bills in Parliament), England switched over to appeals in civil cases in 1873, and in criminal cases in 1907.


title: Appeal

text: The United States first created a system of federal appellate courts in 1789, but a federal right to appeal did not exist in the United States until 1889, when Congress passed the Judiciary Act to permit appeals in capital cases. Two years later, the right to appeals was extended to other criminal cases, and the United States Courts of Appeals were established to review decisions from district courts. Some states, such as Minnesota, still do not formally recognize a right to criminal appeals. The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that there is no federal constitutional right to an appeal.


title: Appeal

text: Although some courts permit appeals at preliminary stages of litigation, most litigants appeal final orders and judgments from lower courts. A fundamental premise of many legal systems is that appellate courts review questions of law "de novo", but appellate courts do not conduct independent fact-finding. Instead, appellate courts will generally defer to the record established by the trial court, unless some error occurred during the fact-finding process. Many jurisdictions provide a statutory or constitutional right for litigants to appeal adverse decisions. However, most jurisdictions also recognize that this right may be waived. In the United States, for example, litigants may waive the right to appeal, as long as the waiver is "considered and intelligent".


title: Appeal

text: The appellate process usually begins when an appellate court grants a party's petition for review or petition for certiorari. Unlike trials, which many common law jurisdictions typically perform with a jury, appeals are generally presented to a judge, or a panel of judges. Before hearing oral argument, parties will generally submit legal briefs in which the parties present their arguments at length in writing. Appellate courts may also grant permission for an "amicus curiae" to submit a brief in support of a particular party or position. After submitting briefs, parties often have the opportunity to present an oral argument to a judge or panel of judges. During oral arguments, judges often ask questions to attorneys to challenge their arguments or to advance their own legal theories. After deliberating in chambers, appellate courts issue formal written opinions that resolve the legal issues presented for review.


title: Appeal

text: When considering cases on appeal, appellate courts generally affirm, reverse, or vacate the decision of a lower court. Some courts maintain a dual function, where they consider both appeals as well as matters of "first instance". For example, the Supreme Court of the United States primarily hears cases on appeal but retains original jurisdiction over a limited range of cases. Some jurisdictions maintain a system of intermediate appellate courts, which are subject to the review of higher appellate courts. The highest appellate court in a jurisdiction is sometimes referred to as a "court of last resort".


title: Environmentalist

text: An environmentalist is a person who is concerned with and/or advocates for the protection of the environment. An environmentalist can be considered a supporter of the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that seeks to improve and protect the quality of the natural environment through changes to environmentally harmful human activities". An environmentalist is engaged in or believes in the philosophy of environmentalism or one of the related philosophies.


title: Environmentalist

text: The environmental movement has a number of subcommunities, with different approaches and focuses – each developing distinct movements and identities. Environmentalists are sometimes referred to by critics with informal or derogatory terms such as "greenie" and "tree-hugger", with some members of the public associating the most radical environmentalists with these derogatory terms.


title: Environmentalist

text: The environmental movement contains a number of subcommunities, that have developed with different approaches and philosophies in different parts of the world. Notably, the early environmental movement experienced a deep tension between the philosophies of conservation and broader environmental protection. In recent decades the rise to prominence of environmental justice, indigenous rights and key environmental crises like the climate crises, has led to the development of other environmentalist identities. Environmentalists can be describe as one of the following:


title: Environmentalist

text: The public recognition of the climate crisis and emergence of the climate movement in the beginning of the 21st century led to a distinct group of activists. Activations like the School Strike for Climate and Fridays for Future, have led to a new generation of youth activists like Greta Thunberg, Jamie Margolin and Vanessa Nakate who have created a global youth climate movement.


title: Environmentalist

text: One notable strain of environmentalism, comes from the philosophy of the conservation movement. Conservationists are concerned with leaving the environment in a better state than the condition they found it distinct from human interaction. The conservation movement is associated with the early parts of the environmental movement of the 19th and 20th century.


title: Environmentalist

text: The adoption of environmentalist into a distinct political ideology led to the development of political parties called "green parties", typically with a leftist political approach to overlapping issues of environmental and social wellbeing.


title: Environmentalist

text: Some of the notable environmentalists who have been active in lobbying for environmental protection and conservation include:


title: Environmentalist

text: In recent years, there are not only environmentalists for natural environment but also environmentalists for human environment. For instance, the activists who call for "mental green space" by getting rid of disadvantages of internet, cable TV, and smartphones have been called "info-environmentalists".


title: Names of Beijing

text: "Beijing" is from pinyin "Běijīng," which is romanized from , the Chinese name for this city. The pinyin system of transliteration was approved by the Chinese government in 1958, but little used until 1979. It was gradually adopted by various news organizations, governments, and international agencies over the next decade.


title: Names of Beijing

text: The Chinese characters ("north") and ("capital") together mean the "Northern Capital". The name was first used during the reign of the Ming dynasty's Yongle Emperor, who made his northern fief a second capital, along with Nanjing (, the "Southern Capital"), in 1403 after successfully dethroning his nephew during the Jingnan Campaign. The name was restored in 1949 at the founding of the People's Republic of China.


title: Names of Beijing

text: Portugal was the first European country to contact China in modern times. In Portuguese, the city is called "Pequim." This name appeared in the letters of Francis Xavier in 1552. It transferred to English as "Pekin" and to French as "Pékin".


title: Names of Beijing

text: Jesuit missionary Martino Martini used "Peking" in "De bello Tartarico historia" (The Tartary [Manchu] War) (1654) and "Novus Atlas Sinensis" (New Atlas of China) (1655). In 1665, Martini's work was reissued as part of "Atlas Maior" (great atlas), a much-praised atlas by Dutch publisher Joan Blaeu.


title: Names of Beijing

text: In English, both "Pekin" and "Peking" remained common until the 1890s, when the Imperial Post Office adopted Peking.


title: Names of Beijing

text: Beginning in 1979, the Chinese government encouraged use of pinyin romanisation system. "The New York Times" adopted "Beijing" in 1986, with all major US media soon following. Elsewhere in the Anglosphere, the BBC switched in 1990. "Peking" is still employed in terms such as "Pekingese", "Peking duck", "Peking Man" and various others, as well as being retained in the name of Peking University.


title: Names of Beijing

text: The city has had many other names. The chronological list below sets out both the names of the city itself, and, in earlier times, the names of the administrative entities covering the city today.


title: Names of Beijing

text: In Chinese, the abbreviation of Beijing is its second character ("Capital"). This is employed, for example, as the prefix on all Beijing-issued license plates.


title: Names of Beijing

text: In the Latin alphabet, the official abbreviation are the two initials of the region's characters: BJ.


title: Names of Beijing

text: Beijing Capital International Airport's IATA code is PEK, based on the previous romanization, Peking.


title: Names of Beijing

text: In addition to Nanjing, several other East Asian and Southeast Asian cities have similar names in Chinese characters despite appearing dissimilar in English transliteration. The most prominent is Tokyo, Japan, whose "Han script" name is written ("Dongjing", or "Eastern Capital"). was also a former name of Hanoi (as "Đông Kinh" or "Tonkin") in Vietnam during the Later Lê Dynasty. A former name of Seoul in South Korea was Gyeongseong, written in "Han script" as or "Capital City". Kyoto in Japan still bears the similar-meaning characters : the character "都", "du" in Chinese, can also mean "capital".


title: Names of Beijing

text: The history of China since the Tang dynasty has also been full of secondary capitals with directional names. Under the Tang, these were Beidu ("north capital", at Taiyuan in Shanxi); Nandu ("south capital", first, Chengdu in Sichuan and, later, Jiangling in Hubei); Dongdu ("east capital", Luoyang in Henan); and Xidu ("west capital", Fengxiang in Shaanxi).


title: Names of Beijing

text: There were two previous Beijings: one, the northern capital of the Northern Song at modern Daming in Hebei; the other, the northern capital of the Jurchen Jin located at Ningcheng in Inner Mongolia.


title: Names of Beijing

text: The Nanjing of the Northern Song was located at Shangqiu in Henan. The Jurchen Jin located theirs at Kaifeng,) which had been the Northern Song's "Dongjing". The Jurchen Jin also had a Dongjing ("Eastern Capital"), which was, however, located at Liaoyang in Liaoning. Apart from these, there were two Xijings (, "Western Capital"): one was the "Western Capital" of the Northern Song dynasty, located at Luoyang; the other was held by the Liao and Jurchen Jin at Datong. Liaoyang was the Zhongjing (, "Central Capital") of the Liao dynasty and, finally, another Zhongdu ("Central Capital") was planned but never completed. It was the proposed capital of the Ming Dynasty mooted by the Hongwu Emperor in the 14th century, to be located on the site of his destroyed childhood village of Zhongli (), now Fengyang in Anhui.


title: Louis Dega

text: Louis Dega (sometimes written Louis Delga) is the name of a character in Henri Charrière's novel "Papillon". In the 1973 film this character was played by Dustin Hoffman and in the 2017 film the role was played by Rami Malek. Purportedly an autobiography, few of the characters and events in "Papillon" could be corroborated and it is perhaps best regarded as a narrative novel, combining and embellishing the adventures of Charrière and several fellow inmates, in particular of René Belbenoît and Charles Brunier.


title: Louis Dega

text: In the book, Dega is introduced as one who "had been caught up in the scandal of the counterfeit National Defense bonds", had become rich and "one of the biggest crooks" in the Marseille underworld, but was exposed as the lead forger in 1929 by one "Brioulet", an arrested partner in this crime, when Dega had refused to help him to pay for a lawyer. He was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment on Devil's Island, where he became a companion of Charrière for 13 years. The two were first sent to a prison in Caen, where they made a deal in which Dega paid Papillon for protection, until they embarked for South America in 1932. Dega's younger brother Joseph tried to help Charrière escape from Barranquilla prison in Colombia. The two became best friends during their sentence.


title: Louis Dega

text: There was a real bonds counterfeit scandal, for which multiple people were arrested in Metz in 1925, the main forger among them one Fernand Royer born in Paris in 1881, but the names Dega or Brioulet were not associated with it. Dega likely is a fusion of two or more people Charrière had met or read about.


title: La Chaux-de-Fonds

text: La Chaux-de-Fonds () is a Swiss city in the canton of Neuchâtel. It is located in the Jura mountains at an altitude of 1000 m, a few kilometers south of the French border. After Geneva, Lausanne and Fribourg, it is the fourth largest city located in the Romandie, the French-speaking part of the country, with a population () of .


title: La Chaux-de-Fonds

text: The city was founded in 1656. Its growth and prosperity is mainly bound up with the watch-making industry. It is the most important centre of the watch-making industry in the area known as the Watch Valley. Partially destroyed by a fire in 1794, La Chaux-de-Fonds was rebuilt following a grid street plan, which was and is still original among Swiss cities, the only exception being the easternmost section of the city, which was spared by the fire. This creates an interesting and obvious transition from the old section to the newer section. The roads in the original section are very narrow and winding, which then open up to the grid pattern near the town square. The famous architect Le Corbusier, the writer Blaise Cendrars and the carmaker Louis Chevrolet were born there. La Chaux-de-Fonds is a renowned centre of Art Nouveau.


title: La Chaux-de-Fonds

text: In 2009, La Chaux-de-Fonds and Le Locle, its sister city, were jointly awarded UNESCO World Heritage status for their exceptional universal value.


title: La Chaux-de-Fonds

text: The watch-making cities of La Chaux-de-Fonds and Le Locle have jointly received recognition from UNESCO for their exceptional universal value.


title: La Chaux-de-Fonds

text: The Site's planning consists of two small cities located close to each other in the mountainous environment of the Swiss Jura. Due to the altitude () and the lack of water (porous sandstone underground), the land is ill-suited to farming. Planning and buildings reflect the watch-making artisans' need for rational organization. Rebuilt in the early 19th century, after extensive fires, both towns owe their survival to the manufacturing and exports of watches, to which, in the 20th century, was added the minute micromechanical industry.


title: La Chaux-de-Fonds

text: Along an open-ended scheme of parallel strips on which residential housing and workshops intermingle, the town's planned layout reflects the needs of the local watch-making culture that dates back to the 17th century, and which is still alive today. Both agglomerations present outstanding examples of mono-industrial manufacturing towns, which are still well-preserved and active. Urban planning has accommodated the transition from the artisans' production of a cottage industry to the more concentrated factory production of the late 19th and 20th centuries.


title: La Chaux-de-Fonds

text: In 1867 Karl Marx was already describing La Chaux-de-Fonds as a "huge factory-town" in "Das Kapital", where he analyzed the division of labour in the watch-making industry of the Jura.


title: La Chaux-de-Fonds

text: It is the tenth Swiss Site to be awarded World Heritage status, joining others such as the Old City of Bern, the Rhaetian Railway and the Abbey and Convent of St. Gallen.


title: La Chaux-de-Fonds

text: The region was first inhabited around 10,000 years ago (Mesolithic). A skull and other traces have been found in caves nearby.


title: La Chaux-de-Fonds

text: In the middle of the 14th century, the region was colonized from the southern Val-de-Ruz. La Chaux-de-Fonds is first mentioned in 1350 as "la Chaz de Fonz". In 1378 it was mentioned as "Chault de Font".