Alcide Amedeo Francesco De Gasperi (; 3 April 1881 – 19 August 1954) was an Italian statesman and politician who founded the Christian Democracy party. From 1945 to 1953 he was the prime minister of eight successive coalition governments. His eight-year term in office remains a landmark of political longevity for a leader in modern Italian politics. A conservative Catholic, he was one of the Founding fathers of the European Union, along with the other Italian Altiero Spinelli, the FrenchRobert Schuman and the West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer.