Farewell to Carlo Tognoli, former mayor of Milan and minister

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05 March 2021Carlo Tognoli former mayor of Milan, minister and deputy of the PSI and member of the European Parliament, died this morning in the Lombard capital, where he was born on June 16, 1938. 

Tognoli died at the age of 82 in his home.

In November he was struck by Covid, while he was hospitalized at the Gaetano Pini hospital for a fracture of the femur.

He had been discharged a few days ago.

He led Milan for ten years, from 1976 to 1986, winning the title of the city's youngest mayor: he was only 38 years old.

He was Minister of Tourism with Giulio Andreotti and Minister for Urban Areas Problems with Giovanni Goria and Ciriaco de Mita.

Twenty-year-old he joined the Italian Socialist Party in 1958. And it was at the PSI that the family communicated the news of his death.

Before his political career he worked as a chemical expert in a pharmaceutical company.

Then he changed direction and devoted himself to the party, the PSI of Pietro Nenni: he became Youth Manager of the PSI from 1958 to 1962, municipal councilor of the Municipality of Cormano from 1960 to 1970 and citizen secretary of the PSI from 1969 to 1970. He began to fill roles of Relief from 1970 when he became Councilor of the Municipality of Milan until 1976, the year of his election as First Citizen.

He was also a journalist and director of the monthly Critica Sociale from 1981 to 1992.

In Milan, before becoming mayor he was also councilor for Social Assistance and Security, then for the State Property and Heritage, and finally for Public Works.

From 1984 to 1987 he was a member of the European Parliament on the PSI lists, then he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies and subsequently held the office of Minister from 1987 to 1992.

His life changed with Tangentopoli, when in 1992 he received a guarantee notice and moved away from the political scene.

Enrico Cuccia was close to him, as he often recalled, who offered him a position in Mediobanca.

In an interview he said: "I do not want to talk about my trials, all ended well. I limit myself to observing that with Mani Pulite the decline of Italy began. The summary justice of that period beheaded a ruling class, not only on the ground political, but also on that of business. Maybe someone deserved to end up in the stand, but having made a shit out of all the grass was an unforgivable mistake ".

He left the political scene in '92, in the following years, from 2003 to 2005, he was President of the Museum of Science and Technology in Milan.

And to follow, president of the Maggiore Hospital Foundation in Milan. 

Immediate comments from

: "Carlo Tognoli, a piece of Milanese history, of Socialist history and also of our life that goes away. A great pain", he wrote on Twitter.

The mayor of Milan

remembers him as "a great mayor of our city, a concrete politician open to reforms. A true Milanese. For me a teacher and a sincere friend. I join the pain of the family". 

"Carlo Tognoli was a beloved mayor who faced the difficult years of the exit from terrorism, giving an imprint to the city that marked a long period", is the comment of the former Milanese mayor

who adds: "With his death Milan loses a reference figure, a protagonist of the public debate listened to and respected ".