{{Short description|Italian politician (1935–2026)}} {{multiple issues|{{Rough translation|it|date=January 2026}} {{Update|arg=biographies|date=January 2026}}}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2026}} {{Infobox person | name = Alberto Benzoni | birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1935|3|29}} | birth_place = Bad Bentheim, Gau Weser-Ems, Germany | death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|2026|1|11|1935|3|29}} | death_place = | occupation = Journalist, historian, politician | political_party = Italian Socialist Party<br>Labour Federation<br>Italian Democratic Socialists<br> }}

'''Alberto Benzoni''' (29 March 1935 – 11 January 2026) was an Italian politician.

== Life and career == ===Political career=== Benzoni joined the Italian Socialist Party in 1957, was elected city councilor of Rome in 1971, re-elected in 1976 and 1981, and in 1976 he joined the left-wing government led by the Independent Left as a Deputy Mayor elected on the PCI Giulio Carlo Argan list and in the subsequent Petroselli government.<ref name=":0">{{cite web|date=11 January 2026 |title=Rome. Hon. Svetlana Celli, farewell to Alberto Benzoni, politician, administrator, and leading intellectual |url=https://www.la-notizia.net/2026/01/11/roma-on-svetlana-celli-addio-ad-alberto-benzoni-politico-amministratore-e-intellettuale-di-primissimo-piano/}}</ref> After the 1981 local elections he was replaced by Pierluigi Severi, who at the time was close to the Craxian wing of the PSI.

A member of the Lombard left Riccardo Lombardi (politician), in 1978 Benzoni was, together with Michele Achilli, Gianfranco Amendola, Tristano Codignola, Paolo Leon and Marcello Vittorini, among the signatories of an article in the '''Avanti!'' critical of the party secretary Bettino Craxi, because of his anti-communist politics and the «ideological changes» he promoted.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://archiviostorico.unita.it/cgi-bin/highlightPdf.cgi?t{{=}}ebook&file{{=}}/archivio/uni_1978_09/19780909_0001.pdf|title=New criticisms from within the PSI|author=l'Unità|date=9 September 1978}} Continuation: ''[http://archiviostorico.unita.it/cgi-bin/highlightPdf.cgi?t=ebook&file=/archivio/uni_1978_09/19780909_0012.pdf PSI] {{Web archive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402142656/https://archiviostorico.unita.it/cgi-bin/highlightPdf.cgi?t=ebook&file=%2Farchivio%2Funi_1978_09%2F19780909_0012.pdf |date=2 April 2015 }}''</ref>

After the PSI crisis, in 1994 he joined the Labour Federation, of which he was a member until the majority of that formation decided to merge with the Democrats of the Left, which he opposed. Benzoni then promoted the Socialist and Labor Unity Movement, which participated in the founding of the Italian Democratic Socialists in May 1998.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.rivoluzionedemocratica.it/verso-la-diaspora-socialista-1993-94la-federazione-dei-socialisti-e-la-federazione-laburista-rinascita-socialista.htm|title=Towards the Socialist Diaspora (1993-94) THE FEDERATION OF SOCIALISTS AND THE LABOR FEDERATION - SOCIALIST REBIRTH -|date=26 November 2020|access-date=11 January 2026}}</ref>

In 2006, he supported the Rose in the Fist project.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.emmabonino.it/press/about_emma_bonino/3840|title=ROSA NEL PUGNO, CON WALTER "LAICAMENTE"|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210915201130/http://www.emmabonino.it/press/about_emma_bonino/3840|archive-date=15 September 2021|url-status=dead}}</ref>

On 1–2 June 2019, during the 1st National Congress of Risorgimento Socialista, he was unanimously elected President of the party.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.risorgimentosocialista.it/primo-congresso-nazionale-rs/|title=Primo Congresso Nazionale RS|date=26 April 2019 |access-date=5 July 2024}}</ref>

After being elected President of ''Risorgimento Socialista'' in 2019, Benzoni continued to play an active role in the party’s activities, presiding over the Festa Nazionale di Risorgimento Socialista in Rome in December 2025.<ref>{{cite web |title=Prima festa nazionale di Risorgimento Socialista (Prima giornata) |url=https://www.radioradicale.it/scheda/712376/prima-festa-nazionale-di-risorgimento-socialista-prima-giornata |access-date=28 January 2026 |publisher=Radio Radicale}}</ref>

===Writer and journalist=== Author of several publications on the history of socialism and the PSI, in 1991, before the end of the Craxian parabola sparked by the Clean Hands investigations, he published the essay "Craxism," on the figure and politics of Bettino Craxi.<ref>{{Cite news|place=Paolo Franchi, Ivo Caiazzi, Venanzio Postiglione|url=https://archiviostorico.corriere.it/1992/dicembre/16/Craxismo_tramonto_epoca_co_0_92121614718.shtml|title="Craxism," the twilight of an era|author=Corriere della Sera|date=16 December 1992}}</ref> Together with his daughter Elisa, a graduate in contemporary history, in 1999 he published "Attentato e rappresaglia," an essay on the Via Rasella attack.

He wrote international politics columns for '''Avanti!''<ref>[http://www.avantionline.it/blog/alberto-benzoni/ Alberto Benzoni on Avanti!].</ref> and ''Mondoperaio''.<ref>[http://www.mondoperaio.net/author/alberto-benzoni/ Alberto Benzoni on Mondoperaio]</ref>

===Death=== Benzoni died on 11 January 2026, at the age of 90.<ref name=":0" /><ref>[https://www.avantionline.it/addio-ad-alberto-benzoni-un-socialista-di-valore-dallo-sguardo-sempre-acuto/ Addio Alberto Benzoni. Socialista di valore dallo sguardo acuto] {{in lang|it}}</ref>

== Works == *{{cite book|chapter=The Socialists and Foreign Policy|title=The Foreign Policy of the Italian Republic|others=edited by Massimo Bonanni|date=1967|author=Edizioni di Comunità|place=Milan}} *(with Viva Tedesco) {{cite book|title=The Socialist Movement in the Postwar Period|date=1968|author=Marsilio|place=Venice}} *{{cite book|title=The Socialist Party from the Resistance to date | date=1980 | author=Marsilio | place= Venice}} *''Governing Rome. On the Side of the Socialists'', by Antonio Manca, Rome, Edimez, 1981 - interview *{{cite book|title=Craxism|date=1991|author=Edizioni Associate|place=Rome|isbn=88-267-0047-8}} *(with Luca Cefisi, introduction by Stefano Silvestri) {{cite book|title=Pacifism. Stories of Ideas and Movements Against War|date=1995|author=Edizioni Associate|place=Rome}} *(with Roberto Gritti) {{cite book|title=No Man's Land. In Search of the Lost Republic|others=with a preface by Walter Veltroni|date=1995|place=Rome|author=Edizioni Lavoro|isbn=88-7910-642-2}} *(with Elisa Benzoni) {{cite book|title=Attack and Reprisal. The PCI and Via Rasella|date=1999|author=Marsilio|place=Venice|isbn=88-317-7169-8}} *{{cite book|chapter=Salvemini and the Left in Italy|title=Gaetano Salvemini (1873-1957) | others = edited by Guido Pescosolido | date= 2010 | author= Piero Lacaita Editore | place= Manduria | isbn = 978-88-6582-002-5}} *(with Elisa Benzoni) ''The Ways of Italy'', Brescia, Bietti, 2009. *(with Elisa Benzoni) {{book citation|title=History with the ifs. Ten Cases That Could Have Changed the Course of the Twentieth Century | others = with contributions by Luciano Cafagna, Mario Del Pero, Ernesto Galli della Loggia, Andrea Graziosi, Paolo Mieli, Gian Enrico Rusconi, Giovanni Sabbatucci, Claudio Strinati, and Massimo Teodori | date = 2013 | author=Marsilio | place=Venice | isbn = 88-317-1426-0}}

== Notes == <references/>

== External links == * [http://www.radioradicale.it/scheda/111306/111853-attentato-e-rappresaglia-il-pci-e-via-rasella-presentazione-del-libro-di-alberto-benzoni-e-elisa-be Presentation of ''Attack and Reprisal''], featuring, among others, former partisan Leo Solari and historian Giovanni Sabbatucci, on Radio Radicale. * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DiOj0NcG3E Presentation of History with Ifs], 29 May 2013

{{Portal|biographies|publishing|politics|socialism}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Benzoni, Alberto}} Category:1935 births Category:2026 deaths Category:20th-century Italian politicians Category:21st-century Italian politicians Category:Italian Socialist Party politicians Category:Labour Federation (Italy) politicians Category:Italian Democratic Socialists politicians