constituency of Castellammare di Stabia (NA). Within the part he participated in the current of Democratic Initiative, which marked the transition from the degasperian generation to the so-called "second generation" and, subsequently, in the early 1960s, participated in the foundation of the "Dorotean faction". On 19 January 1969, Piccoli was elected national secretary of the party, a position he voluntarily left in the autumn of the same year following the division of the Dorotean faction into the factions "Popular Initiative" (the majority area that referred to Piccoli, Rumor and Bisaglia) and "Democratic Commitment" (which instead brought together the exponents who recognize themselves in Emilio Colombo and Giulio Andreotti). Arnaldo Forlani succeeded him in as secretary. He served as Minister of State Holdings from 1970 to 1972, he was elected President of the Christian Democratic Parliamentary Group of the Chamber in the VI Legislature (25 May 1972 to 4 July 1976); subsequently it was the group leader of DC also in the VII Legislature (from 15 July 1976 to 2 October 1978). In 1978, after Aldo Moro's death, he replaced him as president of the national party council. On 5 March 5, 1980 he was re-elected national political secretary, a position he held until 1982, initiating a process of opening up Christian Democracy to the Catholic world leading to the National Assembly of "outsiders" and the direct involvement in politics of many intellectuals from the Catholic area. After the 1982 Congress in Rome, which elected Ciriaco De Mita as political secretary, he was again called to the presidency of the National Council, a position held until May 1986. From 1986 to 1989 he held the position of President of the Christian Democratic International, and was elected President of the Foreign Commission of the Chamber. As president of the Foreign Commission, in April 1988 he made a trip to the Soviet Union, during which he pronounced some phrases related to the Italian expedition to Russia in the Second World War that aroused controversial reactions (especially by MP Mirko Tremaglia of the Italian Social Movement, also a member of the commission) and a debate in the Chamber. In particular, he said he was happy that Italy has lost the war because it has regained freedom and that those who started the war do not deserve Christian burial. Following the mafia charges brought by the Palermo prosecutor against Giulio Andreotti, Piccoli intervened in his