Prime Minister
In November 1879 he entered the Cairoli cabinet as minister of the interior, and in May 1881 succeeded to the premiership, retaining that office until his death.
During the long interval he recomposed his cabinet four times, first throwing out Giuseppe Zanardelli and Alfredo Baccarini in order to please the Right, and subsequently bestowing portfolios upon Cesare Ricotti-Magnani, Robilant and other Conservatives, so as to complete the political process known as trasformismo. A few weeks before his death he repented of his transformist policy, and again included Francesco Crispi and Zanardelli in his cabinet.
During his long term of office he abolished the grist tax, extended suffrage, completed the railway system, aided Mancini in forming the Triple Alliance, and initiated colonial policy by the occupation of Massawa; but, at the same time, he vastly increased indirect taxation, corrupted and destroyed the fibre of parliamentary parties, and, by extravagance in public works, impaired the stability of Italian finance.
Depretis (a Freemason, incidentally) and Conte di Cavour, Italy's first prime minister, are the only Italian prime ministers who died in office.
Read more about this topic: Agostino Depretis
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