elected President of the Italian Republic, Gardner stated to AP Television News that he considered Napolitano "a real statesman", "a true believer in democracy" and "a friend of the United States [who] will carry out his office with impartiality and fairness". Thanks to this role and in part by the good offices of Giulio Andreotti, in the 1980s Napolitano was able to travel to the United States and give lectures at Aspen, Colorado and at Harvard University. He has since visited and lectured in the United States several times. After the death of Enrico Berlinguer in 1984, Napolitano was among the possible successors as Secretary of the party, but Alessandro Natta was preferred. In July 1989 Napolitano became Foreign Minister in the PCI shadow government, from which he resigned the day after the Congress of Rimini, where advocates for processing into Democratic Party of the Left. After the Italian Communist Party After the dissolution of the PCI in February 1991, Napolitano followed most of its membership into the Democratic Party of the Left, a democratic socialist and social democratic party, considered the post-communist evolution of the PCI. President of the Chamber of Deputies In 1992 he was elected President of the Chamber of Deputies, replacing Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, who became President of the Italian Republic. That legislature was hit by "Tangentopoli" and his presidency became one of the fronts of the relationship between the judiciary and politics. Late 1990s and early 2000s After the 1996 Italian general election, the centre-left Prime Minister Romano Prodi selected him as Minister of the Interior. He was the first former Communist to hold the office, a role traditionally occupied by Christian Democrats. In this capacity, he took part, together with fellow lawmaker and Cabinet Minister Livia Turco, in drafting the government-sponsored law on immigration control (Legislative Decree No. 40 6 March 1998), better known as the "Turco–Napolitano bill". Napolitano remained Minister of the Interior until October 1998, when Prodi's government lost its majority in the Parliament. Napolitano also served a second term as an MEP from 1999 to 2004 as member of the Party of European Socialists. In October 2005, he was named Senator for life, and was, therefore, one of the last two to be appointed by President of the Republic Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, together with Sergio Pininfarina. President of Italy First term (2006–2013) Election The 2006 Italian general election saw a victory