Minghetti, Marco [key], 1818–86, Italian political leader. A former papal minister, Minghetti—a liberal conservative—became a supporter of Italian unification as a result of his association with Count Cavour, under whom he served in the foreign office of the kingdom of Sardinia and as minister of the interior. He became premier in 1863 but was forced to resign the following year over questions of regional loyalties and the location of the Italian capital. After unification Minghetti headed a conservative cabinet (1873–76), until the leftists under Agostino Depretis gained power in Mar., 1876. He then led the opposition in the parliament, although toward the end of his life he advocated closer cooperation between conservatives and liberals.
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