In April 1955, Giovanni Gronchi was elected new President of the Republic. Scelba presented to the newly elected head of state the formal resignation of his government: it was an act of courtesy towards the new president, who, in the absence of a majority crisis, should reject them, but Gronchi did not do it. This generated a real political crisis, during which Fanfani, as secretary of the DC, kept Scelba out the formation of the new cabinet, even if he was formally the designated Prime Minister. In July 1955 Scelba renounced the office, and on 6 July, Antonio Segni sworn in as new Prime Minister. Scelba, whose fall was caused by political maneuvering of his party's rivals, always stated that he had been overthrown not by a parliamentary vote but by party coup. After the premiership After his resignation, a period of centre-left governments began and Scelba lost lot of his influence over the party. In 1958, Scelba formed his own faction within the DC, known as Centrismo popolare ("People's Centrism") and composed conservative by politicians such Guido Gonella, Roberto Lucifredi, Mario Martinelli and Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, which would be dissolved in 1968. On 26 July 1960, he was appointed Minister of the Interior in Fanfani's third cabinet. In fact, the disorders which caused the fall of Fernando Tambroni's government, made Scelba's return to the Viminale Palace necessary to protect public order against violent demonstrations. In that role he also had to face the broke out of tensions in South Tyrol, where some serious bombing attacks had taken place by South Tyrolean separatist movements. Scelba adopted extraordinary measures to save public order and established an advisory commission called to draw up proposals to promote coexistence between different ethnic-linguistic groups. Scelba remained in office until February 1962, when Fanfani proposed a cabinet reshuffle, ousting him from office. During the rest of his political career, he always tried to oppose the positions of Christian democrats who, like Fanfani and Aldo Moro, worked to overcome centrist policies, starting a gradual convergence with the Socialist Party. A fervent supporter of European integration, he was a member of the European Parliament from 1960 to 1979 and served as President of the EP from 1969 to 1971, becoming the third Italian to hold the office after De Gasperi and Pella. He ran in the first European election in June 1979, for the constituency Italian Islands, receiving