Giovanni Spadolini; Former Italian Leader

Giovanni Spadolini, 69, former prime minister who headed two Italian coalition governments in the 1980s. As leader of the tiny Republican Party, which had an electoral base of 3%, Spadolini headed governments in 1981 and 1982, breaking the Christian Democrats’ four-decade lock on power. His coalition collapsed in political bickering over an economic austerity plan. Spadolini served as defense minister under Socialist Premier Bettino Craxi in 1985, and threatened to bring down the government after Italian authorities released the Palestinian suspected of leading the Achille Lauro hijacking. Spadolini was named a senator for life in 1991. He lost the senate presidency, which he had held since 1987, by one vote in April to Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s choice of Carlo Scognamiglio. Spadolini also served as editor of Milan’s Corriere della Sera and taught political science at the University of Florence before turning to politics. In Rome on Thursday of stomach cancer.