Mario Zagari

Zagari was born in Milan on 14 September 1913.^[1] He held a law degree, which he received from the University of Milan.^[2] He attended courses of political economy at the University of Berlin.^[2]

During World War II, Zagari was an anti-Nazi resistance militant.^[3]

After the war Zagari began his political activity. He was leader of the anti-Stalinist group, called Iniziativa Socialista.^[4] In the late 1960s Zagari was part of the right-wing group in the party together with Pietro Nenni and Giovanni Pieraccini.^[5]

Zagari remained as a member of the Socialist Party until 24 July 1989.^[1] He served as the undersecretary at the ministry of foreign affairs for three times (specifically, from 23 February 1966 to 5 June 1968, from 22 July 1964 to 21 January 1966 and from 12 December 1968 to 5 July 1969).^[6][7]

In 1970 Zagari served as the minister of foreign trade in the cabinet of Mariano Rumor and led the first Italian commercial delegation to China in 1971.^[8] He was the justice minister from 7 July 1973 to 23 November 1974. Then he became one of twelve vice presidents of the European Parliament on 27 October 1976 and held the post until 18 January 1982.^[1][9] He was part of the socialist group in the parliament.^[9] He ran for the presidency of the parliament in the elections held in July 1979, but lost the election.^[10] In addition, he served at different commissions and delegations of the parliament from 14 March 1978 to 24 July 1989.^[1]

Controversy

After leaving office as justice minister Zagari was charged with abusing official acts, and making them public.^[11] The inquiry committee of the parliament, whose twenty members had been selected in proportion to the membership of the parties, rejected the case with a majority vote.^[11]

Zagari died in Rome on 29 February 1996.^[2] He was buried in the Protestant Cemetery in Rome.^[12] On the tenth anniversary of his death a book by him and Giuseppe Muzzi was republished in 2006.^[13]