ROME (Reuters) - Former Italian president, prime minister and central bank governor Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, who played a key role in guiding the country into the European single currency, has died, the government said on Friday.

Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi waves to the crowd while visiting his home town of Livorno May 3, 2006. Italian Presidency/Enrico Oliverio/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo

He was 95 and had been ill for some time.

One of Italy’s most respected figures on the international stage, Ciampi helped steer the country through the dark days of corruption scandals in the 1990s and persuaded skeptical EU allies that the economy was fit to join the euro.

“One of our fathers has left us. If Italy is (still) a great country then we owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Ciampi,” former prime minister Enrico Letta wrote on Twitter.

Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, wrote: “Today, we have lost a great Italian and a great European.” Pope Francis praised Ciampi’s “gentlemanly discretion and great sense of duty”.

While tributes flowed in from across Europe, the head of the anti-EU Northern League party struck a discordant note, denouncing Ciampi for the crucial role he had played in making sure Italy was part of the euro from its birth in 1999.

“Politically speaking, Ciampi is one of the traitors of Italy,” Matteo Salvini told Sky Italia TV.

“He carries on his conscience the disaster that has befallen 50 million Italians,” said Salvini, who regularly rails against the euro, arguing that a loss of monetary independence has brought years of economic misery to Italy.

Ciampi spent most of his working life at the Bank of Italy, which he joined in 1946 after the Second World War when he fought with the Italian partisans against Mussolini. During his 14 years as its head, the Bank was freed from political control, winning leeway to set interest rates and exchange rate policy.

He often said he expected to retire when he left the central bank but in 1993, with Italy mired in the corruption scandals of ”Tangentopoli” (Bribesville), Ciampi was persuaded to become prime minister to stave off crisis.

CHARM OFFENSIVE

He launched himself with gusto into Italy’s myriad financial and economic problems and his lack of political ties gave his government a ”can-do” image contrasting with the tortuous deal-making that characterized many previous administrations.

Always a non-partisan figure, Ciampi took no part in the 1994 election which launched Silvio Berlusconi’s political career, But he returned two years later when Berlusconi was defeated by Romano Prodi at the head of a center-left alliance.

When Prodi took office in 1996, he called on Ciampi to lend credibility to his campaign to get Italy included into the first wave of euro zone members.

With doubts about Italy’s financial fitness stacked up as high as its mountain of debt, the calm, confident Ciampi was sent on a charm offensive among its partners, especially to Germany. It paid off.

Ciampi, who spoke German having studied in Leipzig in his youth, enjoyed warm relations with the then Bundesbank President Hans Tietmeyer and Finance Minister Theo Waigel.

Thanks to drastic tax hikes, including a one-off “euro tax”, and plunging interest rates, Ciampi slashed Italy’s fiscal deficit from 6.7 percent in 1996 to 2.7 percent in 1997 to secure Italy’s entry into the currency club.

His team of talented economists at the Treasury known as the “Ciampi Boys” included the current European Central Bank President Mario Draghi.

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The Prodi government was brought down by its communist allies the following year but Ciampi’s retirement was delayed yet again when parliament overwhelmingly elected him president of the republic in 1999, for a seven-year term.

Three years in the Italian army from 1941-44 and the horrors of World War Two made Ciampi a fervent Europhile who believed that monetary union must be only a first step in a process of broader political integration.

In recent years he had expressed frustration at what he saw as a lack of vision behind the euro’s travails, as well as at Italy’s economic woes which have seen the public debt rise far above the levels he presided over back in the 1990s.</s>Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, a widely respected former Italian president who played a crucial role in Italy’s adoption of the euro, has died at the age of 95, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi announced Friday.

Ciampi, who also served briefly as prime minister in a 1993-94 caretaker government of technocrats, was president from 1999-2006.

He was so popular that he was widely urged to serve a second term — a proposal he declined on the grounds of his advanced age.

Ciampi spent 14 years as governor of the Bank of Italy and later served as a treasury minister, a role in which he was the principal architect of Italy’s adoption of the euro as one of the founder members of the single currency.

He “served Italy with passion,” Renzi wrote on Twitter. Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni hailed “a great Italian statesman,” and other tributes poured in from across the political spectrum.

A career economist, Ciampi was politically on the centre-left although he was not officially aligned to any party for the bulk of his career.

He took over as prime minister at a time when Italy was reeling from the enormous “mani pulite” (clean hands) corruption scandal.

As president, a largely ceremonial role in Italy, he was credited with being a restraining influence on Silvio Berlusconi when the controversial media tycoon was prime minister.

Ciampi leaves a widow, Franca, to whom he was married for 70 years, and two children. Media reports said he had died after spending several weeks in a Rome hospital.</s>Former Italian president and premier Ciampi dies at 95

MILAN (AP) — The Italian Senate says that former premier and president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, who was also a senator for life, has died at age 95 after a long illness.

Ciampi, who died on Friday, served as both premier of Italy, in 1993-94 when he headed a technocratic government, and also as president, from 1999-2006. He also was governor of the Bank of Italy for 14 years

Premier Matteo Renzi paid tribute to Ciampi, recalling him as "a man of the institutions who served Italy with passion."

The news agency ANSA, citing Ciampi's doctor, said the senator been hospitalized in recent days at the Pio XI hospital in Rome after his condition had worsened. No details were provided.

FILE - This May 3, 2006 file photo shows Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, right, and his wife Franca waving during their visit to the city of Leghorn, Italy. Ciampi died on Friday, Sept. 16, 2016 at the age of 95 after a long illness. (AP Photo/Fabio Muzzi, files)</s>Romanian President Klaus Iohannis expressed on Saturday his condolences to his Italian counterpart Sergio Mattarella for former Italian president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi death.

“A convinced pro-European, supporter of the European single currency, President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi promoted European Union enlargement at a time when Romania aspired to become a member state. He was one of my country’s supporters during the entire negotiation and preparation of adhering process, he repeated on every occasion Italy’s support, in virtue of indestructible historical relations between Romanians and Italians as well as exceptional economic, political and bilateral relations Romania and Italy developed after 1990,” Iohannis said in his message.

At the same time, Iohannis expressed his sincere condolences, personally as well as on behalf of Romanian people, for the passing of Ciampi, which he called “a remarkable landmark of Italy’s politics.”

Former Italian President Ciampi passed away on Friday, at the age of 95.

In his long career, Ciampi served as President of Italy, Prime Minister and governor of Italian Central Bank, and had a key role in his country adopting the Euro.</s>Prime Minister Matteo Renzi praised Ciampi as a man who had worked tirelessly for Italy and served the country with passion.

Ciampi, who had been ill for some time, helped steer Italy through the dark days of corruption scandals in the 1990s and was considered one of the founders of the euro currency.

"One of our fathers has left us. If Italy is (still) a great country then we owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Ciampi," former prime minister Enrico Letta wrote on Twitter.

Ciampi spent most of his working life at the Bank of Italy, which he joined in 1946 after World War Two and headed for 14 years. He wrestled the bank free of political control, winning leeway to set interest rates and exchange rate policy.

He was prime minister from 1993 to 1994 and president from 1999 to 2006.

While Ciampi held the country's top two jobs, it was as treasury minister between 1996 and 1999 that he will probably be best remembered abroad.

Overcoming massive doubts about the financial fitness of heavily indebted Italy, the calm, confident Ciampi went on a charm offensive amongst Italy's EU partners to get good terms for Rome to join the euro project.</s>ROME (JTA) – Italy’s Jews mourned the death of former President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, who had a close relationship to the Italian Jewish community.

Ciampi, who served as president from 1999 to 2006, died Friday at 95.

In a statement, the president of the umbrella Union of Italian Jewish Communities, Noemi Di Segni, expressed “the deepest condolences, both personally and in the name of all Italian Jews” at Ciampi’s death.

Throughout his life, he was “always close to the Jewish world,” Di Segni wrote, as witnessed by his lifelong friendship with the late Rabbi Elio Toaff, who served as Rome’s chief rabbi for half a century.

Ciampi, who also served as Italian prime minister and head of the country’s central bank, was a ”generous, just, and visionary man” committed to anti-fascism and fundamental democratic values, she wrote.

Daniel Nahum, the former vice president of the Milan Jewish community, also remembered Ciampi in a Facebook post.

”For me, he was the best President, the only true [Italian] statesman in the past 20 years,” Nahum wrote.</s>Your feedback is important to us!

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Former Prime Minister and President of Italy Carlo Azeglio Ciampi dies at the age of 95.