Nicola Capria
Office 1Minister for the Coordination of Civil Protection
Prime minister 1Giulio Andreotti
Term start 112 April 1991
Term end 128 June 1992
Predecessor 1Vito Lattanzio
Successor 1Ferdinando Facchiano
Office 2Minister of Tourism and Entertainment
Prime minister 2Bettino Craxi
Term start 21 August 1986
Term end 217 April 1987
Predecessor 2Lelio Lagorio
Successor 2Mario Di Lazzaro
Office 3Minister of Foreign Trade
Prime minister 3Giovanni Spadolini
Amintore Fanfani
Bettino Craxi
Term start 328 June 1981
Term end 31 August 1986
Predecessor 3Enrico Manca
Successor 3Rino Formica
Office 4Member of the Chamber of Deputies
Term start 45 July 1976
Term end 414 April 1994
Birth date6 November 1932
Birth placeRosarno, Calabria, Italy
Death date31 January 2009 (aged 76)
Death placeRome, Lazio, Italy
ProfessionPolitician, lawyer
PartyPSI

Nicola Capria (6 November 1932 – 31 January 2009) was an Italian politician, member of the Italian Socialist Party.

He was Deputy from 1976 to 1994 and served also as Minister several times from 1986 to 1992 in the governments led by Spadolini, Fanfani, Craxi and Andreotti.

He was also city councilor in Messina, Vice-president of the Sicily Region, regional deputy to the Sicilian Regional Assembly and regional secretary of the Sicilian PSI.

During the 1991–1993 eruption of Mount Etna, as Italy's Minister of Civil Protection, Capria oversaw national emergency efforts and commented on Operation Hot Rock, describing the attempt to divert lava from the town of Zafferana Etnea as an "uneven struggle" against a powerful "monster" of nature.[1]

He resigned as parliamentary leader of the PSI when, on 12 January 1994, the prosecutor's office of the Republic of Messina notified him of a guarantee notice in the context of investigations into the Sirap affair for external competition in mafia association. From that moment, although fulfilled with a full formula, because the fact does not exist, he definitively closed all relations with the world of politics.[2]

He died in Rome on 31 January 2009, at the age of 79.

References

  1. ^ Cowell, Alan (25 April 1992). "It's Plug Up Mt. Etna or Go the Way of Pompeii". The New York Times. Retrieved 6 September 2025.
  2. ^ IL PSI A MESSINA ERA LUI: E' MORTO NICOLA CAPRIA. NEL 1994 (PIENA TANGENTOPOLI) CHIUSE LA SUA CARRIERA