Oscar Luigi Scalfaro (born 1918) was a prominent Christian Democratic leader for over forty years before becoming the president of the Italian Republic in May 1992 for a seven-year term.

Oscar Luigi Scalfaro became the president of the Italian Republic on May 25, 1992. His election took place in one of the periods of greatest political and social turmoil in the history of post-World War II Italy. Scalfaro was immediately invested with much of the responsibility for solving Italy's crisis.

Scalfaro, a native of the northwestern region of Piedmont, was known as an austere and incorruptible politician, as well as a devout Catholic attending Mass every day. This image indeed explains his election to the presidency, as the principal task at hand was to return Italian public and political life to a more moral course. Scalfaro's election was in fact prompted by harsh criticism against the government because of corruption among political...