Ermenegildo Gasperoni

Who is Ermenegildo Gasperoni?

Ermenegildo "Gildo" Gasperoni was a Sammarinese politician. He served as the general secretary and, later, chairman of the Sammarinese Communist Party.

Gasperoni was the son of an artisan from San Marino. In his youth, he left the country in 1924. He joined the French Communist Party in 1926. He was an activist of the Communist Party of Luxembourg between 1930 and 1936. He joined the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War, serving as political commissar of the Garibaldi Battalion in the Twelfth International Brigade. He later shifted to serve as the political commissar of the international centre for recruiting and training volunteers.

He returned to his homeland in 1940, beginning to work towards the foundation of the Sammarinese Communist Party. The Italian Communist Party had organized a local branch in San Marino in 1921, but the country did not have a communist party of its own. On July 7, 1941 the Sammarinese Communist Party was founded under Gasperoni's leadership. As of 1949, he was the Minister of Transport in the communist-socialist coalition government. Apart from his political labours, he also worked as an auto mechanic in Borgo Maggiore at this time.