Former Italian president, prime minister and central bank governor Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, has died, the government said, on Friday.
He played a key role in guiding the country into the European single currency.
He was 95 and had been ill for some time.
While tributes flowed in from across Europe, the head of the anti-EU Northern League party struck a discordant note, denouncing Ciampi for the crucial role he had played in making sure Italy was part of the euro from its birth in 1999.
Ciampi spent most of his working life at the Bank of Italy, which he joined in 1946 after the Second World War when he fought with the Italian partisans against Mussolini which made him both loved and hated.
During his 14 years as its head, the Bank was freed from political control, winning leeway to set interest rates and exchange rate policy.
He often said he expected to retire when he left the central bank but in 1993, with Italy mired in the corruption scandals of “Tangentopoli” (Bribesville), Ciampi was persuaded to become prime minister to stave off crisis.
(With inputs from Reuters)
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