San Marino has lost Antonio Carattoni, known to everyone as Tonino, who passed away during the night between Wednesday 4 and Thursday 5 November. He would have turned 81 in just a few days: he was born in Sant’Agata Feltria on 8 November 1945. A professional economist, he spent more than four decades in Sammarinese public life, leaving a mark that extends well beyond the boundaries of his political party.
His institutional path was that of a man who served the Republic in many capacities. A member of the Grand and General Council (Consiglio Grande e Generale) from 1978 to 1988 and again from 1993 to 1998, he returned to the chamber in 2006 as a substitute on the PSD list, and served as Secretary of State for Industry and Crafts between 1983 and 1986.
In the 1990s he represented San Marino as an observer at the Council of Europe and the OSCE, at a time when the country was strengthening its presence on the international stage.
He also sat on the boards of San Marino RTV and the Istituto di Credito Sammarinese (San Marino’s credit institute).
On the political front, he was among the key figures in the reunification of Sammarinese socialism: a member of the executive of the Partito dei Democratici, he helped bring about the merger with the Partito Socialista that in 2005 gave rise to the PSD, in which he served on both the executive board and the secretariat.
The high point of his institutional career came with the Supreme Magistracy: from 1 October 2006 to 1 April 2007 he served as Captain Regent alongside Roberto Giorgetti.
But reducing Carattoni to his official roles would do him a disservice. He was a man of learning, passionate about the country’s economic and social history.
In 2021 he published a book on the financial scandals that have marked the Republic’s history, from the counterfeiters of the eighteenth century to the Ercolani case, and he also authored a work on the early decades of the Confederazione Sammarinese del Lavoro (San Marino’s trade union confederation). He was also actively involved in the Fondazione XXV Marzo, an institution dedicated to preserving San Marino’s historical and political memory.
He was a figure capable of combining analysis with action, someone many turned to for help in understanding the most intricate twists of public life.
Tributes poured in from across the political spectrum. The Congress of State (Congresso di Stato) recalled his contribution to the Republic’s legislative and administrative development and to the reforms that accompanied its modernisation.
The PSD paid tribute to a sharp political mind and a major figure of the Sammarinese left; the CSdL, through its Secretary General Enzo Merlini, recalled his constant collaboration and his work in reconstructing the history of the union movement; Repubblica Futura highlighted his composure and intellectual depth.
At a time when politics tends to consume everything in the present moment, the lesson left by men like Carattoni is that institutions also live on memory, on study, and on respect for those who came before. The editorial staff of INSIDER.SM joins in mourning with the family, his son, Councillor Enrico Carattoni, and all his loved ones.
