ROME: Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, a widely respected former Italian president who played a crucial role in Italy’s adoption of the euro, has died at 95, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi announced on Friday.

Ciampi, who served briefly as prime minister in a 1993-94 caretaker government of technocrats, held the largely ceremonial post of president from 1999 to 2006.

He was so popular that he was widely urged to serve a second term — a proposal he declined on the grounds of his advanced age.

A career economist, Ciampi spent 14 years as governor of the Bank of Italy and later served as a treasury minister, a role in which he was the principal architect of Italy’s adoption of the euro as one of the founder members of the single currency.

He “served Italy with passion,” Renzi wrote on Twitter. Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni hailed “a great Italian statesman,” and other tributes poured in from across the political spectrum.

A rare sour note was sounded by Matteo Salvini of the far-right Northern League. He accused Ciampi of having “sold off Italy’s jobs, currency, borders and future.” Ciampi was politically on the centre-left although he was not officially aligned to any party for the bulk of his career.

Published in Dawn September 17th, 2016