Raffaele Conforti

Raffaele Conforti (Calvanico, 4 October 1804 – Caserta, 3 August 1880) was an Italian politician and senator of the Kingdom of Italy. He was a leading figure of the Risorgimento and the unification of Italy.

Biography
Attorney General of the Grand Criminal Court of Naples, in 1848 he was appointed Minister of the Interior in the constitutional government of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies led by Carlo Troya. After the restoration of Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies, Conforti, who had managed to leave Naples, was sentenced to death in absentia on 1 October 1853.

Having taken refuge in Piedmont, he practiced as a lawyer in Genoa and Turin. He was elected as a deputy to the Subalpine Parliament from the Broni constituency. He supported the Expedition of the Thousand. He returned to Naples following the amnesty granted to the exiles by Francis II of the Two Sicilies, on the eve of the arrival of Garibaldi. During the general's dictatorship he was appointed Minister of the Interior, and in this capacity he organized the plebiscite in Naples and it was he who presented the result to Victor Emmanuel II.

In 1861 he was elected to the VIII legislature, representing Mercato San Severino. He was Minister of Justice in the Rattazzi I government before losing his seat in 1865. He was appointed senator in 1867 and became vice-president of the Senate as well as serving as Minister of Justice a second time in the Cairoli I government. His son it:Luigi Conforti was a poet and historical essayist.

He is remembered in the Poggioreale cemetery, in the enclosure of illustrious men, with a monument inaugurated on 3 July 1892. The work was designed by the architect Giuseppe Pisanti and created by the sculptor Carmelo Gatto.