1.
Silvio Berlusconi
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Silvio Berlusconi is an Italian media tycoon and politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy in four governments. Berlusconi is the controlling shareholder of Mediaset and has owned the Italian football club A. C. Milan since 1986 and he is nicknamed Il Cavaliere for his Order of Merit for Labour, although he voluntarily resigned from this order in March 2014. In 2016, Forbes magazine ranked him as the 188th richest man in the world with a net worth of US$7.1 billion, in 2009, Forbes ranked him 12th in the List of The Worlds Most Powerful People due to his domination in Italian politics. He was the leader of the centre-right party Forza Italia from 1994 to 2009, since November 2013, he has led a revived Forza Italia. Berlusconi was the senior G8 leader from 2009 until 2011 and he holds the record of G8 Summit hosting. After serving nearly 19 years as member of the Chamber of Deputies, Italys lower house, on 1 August 2013, he was convicted of tax-fraud by the final appeal instance, Court of Cassation along with a public office ban for two years. As his age exceeded 70 years, he was exempted from direct imprisonment, because of being sentenced to a gross imprisonment for more than two years, a new Italian anticorruption law made the Senate expel and bar him from serving any legislative office for six years. Berlusconi has pledged to stay leader of Forza Italia throughout the period where he serves his imprisonment sentence, Berlusconi is famous for his populist political style and brash, overbearing personality. Berlusconi was born in Milan in 1936, where he was raised in a middle-class family and his father, Luigi Berlusconi, was a bank employee, and his mother, Rosa Bossi, a housewife. Silvio was the first of three children, he had a sister, Maria Francesca Antonietta Berlusconi, and has a brother, Paolo Berlusconi. After completing his school education at a Salesian college, he studied law at the Università Statale in Milan, graduating in 1961. Berlusconi was not required to serve the standard one-year stint in the Italian army which was compulsory at the time, in later life, he wrote AC Milans anthem with the Italian music producer and pop singer Tony Renis and Forza Italias anthem with the opera director Renato Serio. With the Neapolitan singer Mariano Apicella, he wrote two Neapolitan song albums, Meglio na canzone in 2003 and Lultimo amore in 2006, in 1965, he married Carla Elvira DallOglio, and they had two children, Maria Elvira, better known as Marina, and Pier Silvio. By 1980, Berlusconi had established a relationship with the actress Veronica Lario and he was divorced from DallOglio in 1985, and married Lario in 1990. By this time, Berlusconi was an entrepreneur, and his wedding was a notable social event. One of his best men was Bettino Craxi, a prime minister and leader of the Italian Socialist Party. In May 2009, Lario announced that she was to file for divorce, in addition to his five children, Berlusconi has ten grandchildren. Berlusconis business career began in construction, in the late 1960s, he built Milano Due,4,000 residential apartments east of Milan
2.
Gianfranco Fini
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He was Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs in Silvio Berlusconi’s government from 2001 to 2006. Fini was born on January 3,1952 in Bologna and his grandfather, a communist activist, died in 1970. His mother, Erminia Marani, was the daughter of Antonio Marani, who took part along with Italo Balbo in the march on Rome, which signaled the beginning of fascism in 1922. The name Gianfranco was chosen in remembrance of a cousin, who was killed when he was 20 years old by partisans soon after the liberation of Northern Italy on April 25,1945. In the 1980s he met Daniela Di Sotto, at that time married to Sergio Mariani, mrs. Di Sotto ended her marriage to stay with Fini. Mariani would try to kill soon after. In 1985 they had their daughter, Giuliana. Fini and Di Sotto married in a ceremony in Marino in 1988. Five months after his separation, his relationship with Elisabetta Tulliani, in December 2007, they had a daughter, Carolina. Their second daughter is called Martina, Gianfranco Fini attended Laura Bassi high school in Bologna. At this time, he involved with the Italian Social Movement. He then began his career in the Fronte della Gioventù. Three years later, he moved with his family to Rome, in August 1976 he served his military service in Savona, then in Rome at the Ministry of Defence. In 1977 he became secretary of the Fronte della Gioventù, chosen by Giorgio Almirante. Fini had placed fifth among seven candidates elected in the secretariat of the youth In the meantime. He also collaborated with the newspaper, Il Secolo dItalia. Fini was first elected to the Chamber of Deputies on June 26,1983, re-elected in 1987, in September he was nominated by Almirante to be his successor as the partys secretary. Because only in this way the MSI can have a future, Giorgio Almirante died in May 1988, and at the partys congress in Sorrento that year, Fini defeated the right wing of the party, headed by Pino Rauti, and was elected party secretary
3.
Pier Ferdinando Casini
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Pier Ferdinando Casini is an Italian politician. He was President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies from 2001 to 2006, Casini was born in Bologna and graduated with a degree in law. He was first elected in 1983 for the Christian Democracy party, in 1993, he was amongst the founders of the Christian Democratic Centre, which merged into Union of Christian and Centre Democrats in 2002. In 2001, after Silvio Berlusconis victory in the general election, in a speech to his UDC party, Casini said that not everyone is for sale, in a not so veiled statement about Berlusconis political tactics. Casini ran on a purely centrist platform, expanding the UDC into the Union of the Centre along with Savino Pezzottas White Rose, after 2008, he remained in opposition. At the 2009 Administrative elections, alliances were decided on a local bases, sometimes with PdL, after his divorce from Roberta Lubich, he started dating and eventually moved in with Azzurra Caltagirone, daughter of the famous Roman entrepreneur and publisher Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone. Later they would have a daughter and married on 27 October 2007, malaysia, Honorary Grand Commander of the Order of the Defender of the Realm Palazzo Montecitorio
4.
Umberto Bossi
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Umberto Bossi is an Italian politician, former leader of the Lega Nord, a party seeking autonomy or independence for Northern Italy or Padania. He is married to Manuela Marrone and has four sons, Umberto Bossi was born in 1941 in Cassano Magnago, in the province of Varese, Lombardy. He graduated from high school and later began studying medicine at the University of Pavia. While there, in February 1979 he met Bruno Salvadori, leader of the Valdostan Union, see also, Ideology of the Northern League Before becoming a politician, Bossi was a sympathiser of the Italian Communist Party in his early years. After the death of Salvadori in a car accident during the summer of 1980, after two years, the autonomist Lega Lombarda was born. In that period Bossi met his wife, Manuela Marrone. The Lega Lombarda would later seek alliances with similar movements in Veneto and Piedmont, forming the Northern League and he became the undisputed and unchallenged leader of the party, a position that he maintained until 2012, even after a serious stroke. He is currently the Leagues federal president, an honorary title devoid of real power, when the scandals of Tangentopoli were unveiled from 1992 on, Bossi rode the wave, presenting himself as the new man in politics, and set out to sweep away corruption and incompetence. Bossis sentence was upheld on appeal, while being Reforms minister in 2003 Bossi ordered the Navy to fire live rounds on boats holding illegal immigrants, stating After the second or third warning, bang. Bossi was critical of the European Union, and once described it as a nest of communist bankers, Bossi gave his last two sons unusual, politically charged names, Roberto Libertà and Eridano Sirio. The other son, Renzo, became the center of a controversy when, on May 2012, Renzo Bossi apparently graduated university after only one year of attendance, instead of three. This notwithstanding the fact that previously it took to him three years to pass his high school maturity exam and he alleged that he completed all the exams in Albanian, and had not visited Albania even once. Both Italian and Albanian prosecution offices investigated the case, Bossi began his institutional career in 1987 as the only senator of the Lega Nord, of which he was the leader. He was then given the nickname Senatur, senator in Lombard, Bossi agreed to return to an alliance with Berlusconi, which ultimately led to the 2001 electoral victory. He then served in Silvio Berlusconis second cabinet as Reforms Minister, Bossi later slowly returned to active politics. On 11 January 2005 Bossi appeared on the scene at the last house of the Lombard federalist politician Carlo Cattaneo at Lugano after 306 days from the accident. During that day, he met the Minister of Economy Giulio Tremonti with whom he constituted the political agreement called the Alliance of the North and he also met a representative of the Lega dei Ticinesi, a Swiss localist Movement led by the Luganese entrepreneur Giuliano Bignasca. During his speech Bossi spoke against the Europe of Masons, during the national elections of 2006 he signed a political agreement with Movimento per lAutonomia of the Sicilian politician Raffaele Lombardo
5.
The People of Freedom
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The People of Freedom was a centre-right political party in Italy. The federation was later transformed into a party during a party congress on 27–29 March 2009, the PdL formed Italys government from 2008 to 2011 in coalition with Lega Nord. Alfano functioned as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior, in June 2013 Berlusconi announced Forza Italias revival and the PdLs transformation into a centre-right coalition. In the run-up to the 2006 general election there was talk among the component parties of the House of Freedoms coalition regarding a merger into a united party of moderates. Forza Italia, National Alliance and the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats all seemed interested in the project, soon after the election, however, UDC leader Pier Ferdinando Casini, who had been a reluctant coalition partner, started to distance from its historical allies. Another party of the coalition, Lega Nord, showed no interest in the idea, because of its character as a regionalist party. Shortly afterwards, from the board of a car in a crowded Piazza San Babila in Milan. The new course was called the running board revolution and this expression soon became very popular both among Berlusconis supporters and his adversaries. At the beginning, the fate of FI remained unclear, later, it was explained that the new partys core would consist of FI, the Circles of Freedom and other grassroots groups, and that some minor parties of the House of Freedoms would join too. Also UDC leader Casini criticized the idea from the start and seemed interested in a coalition with Fini. On 24 January 2008, the Prodi II Cabinet fell as a result of the political crisis, on the day after Berlusconi hinted that FI would probably contest its last election, and postponed the foundation of the new party until after the election. In an atmosphere of reconciliation with Fini, Berlusconi also stated that the new party could involve the participation of other parties, on 8 February, Berlusconi and Fini agreed to form a joint list under the banner of The People of Freedom, in alliance with LN. Italians in the World, Social Action and the Reformist Socialists, in the 2008 general election, the PdL won 37. 4% of the vote, getting elected 276 deputies and 146 senators and becoming the Italian largest party. The PdL was also the first party since Christian Democracy in the 1979 general election to get more than 35% of the popular vote, on 27–29 March 2009, the new party held its first congress in Rome and was officially founded. In the 2009 European Parliament election, the party won 35. 2% of the national vote, the PdL was also instrumental in the centre-right victories in Veneto and Piedmont, where two Presidents of LN, Luca Zaia and Roberto Cota respectively, were elected. Between 2009 and 2010 Gianfranco Fini, former leader of the conservative AN and President of the Chamber of Deputies, in fact most Finiani were Southern conservatives who opposed Berlusconis firm alliance with LN, federal reform and Giulio Tremontis economic policy. Others, including Gianni Alemanno and Alfredo Mantovano, found common ground with the partys Christian democrats, on 15 April 2010 Bocchino launched an association named Generation Italy in order to better represent Finis views within the party. On 22 April 2010 the national council of the PdL convened in Rome for the first time in a year, the conflict between Fini and Berlusconi was covered live on television
6.
Forza Italia
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Forza Italia was a centre-right political party in Italy with liberal-conservative, Christian-democratic, liberal and populist tendencies, as well as a significant social-democratic minority. Its leader was Silvio Berlusconi, four times Prime Minister of Italy, the party was founded in December 1993 and won its first general election soon afterwards in March 1994. The partys organisation and ideology depended heavily on its leader and its appeal to voters was based on Berlusconis personality more than on its ideology or programme. Italy was shaken by a series of corruption known as Tangentopoli. This led to the disappearance of the five parties which governed Italy from 1947, DC, PSI, PSDI, PLI and PRI, the new partys campaigning was strongly dependent on Fininvests TV stations and PR resources. This earned Forza Italia labels like virtual, plastic or business-firm party, in her 2001 study of the party, political scientist Emanuela Poli described Forza Italia as a mere diversification of Fininvest in the political market. The case of Forza Italia was unprecedented as never before had a political party been launched by a business corporation. Only slowly it transformed into a mass-membership organisation and it took four years until the first party congress was held. In the 1994 European Parliament election held in June, Forza Italia was placed first nationally, with 30. 6% of the vote, electing 27 MEPs. The party did not join a group in the European Parliament, instead forming the new group Forza Europa. Forza Italias leader was replaced as Prime Minister by Lamberto Dini, no members of Forza Italia joined the new government and the party leader was relegated to opposition. Between 1996 and 1998, the party started to strengthen its organisation under Claudio Scajola, in December 1999, Forza Italia gained full membership in the European Peoples Party, of which Antonio Tajani, the party leader of Forza Italia in the European Parliament, became a Vice President. In the same year, the party scored well in the European Parliament election of 1999, the party regained power in the general election of 2001, gaining 29. In June 2001, after the success in May elections, Sivio Berlusconi was returned head of the Italian government. Again all key ministerial posts were given to Forza Italia members, Interior, Defence, Dinance, Industry, in 2004 European elections, Forza Italia was second place nationally, receiving 20. 1% of the vote and returning 16 MEPs. In national office, the popularity kept declining steadily year after year. After this disappointing performance the cabinet was reshuffled, due to the insistence of the Union of Christian and Centre Democratss leaders. In the 2006 general election the party was present with a different logo
7.
National Alliance (Italy)
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National Alliance was a conservative political party in Italy. It was the successor of the post-fascist Italian Social Movement that distanced itself from its former ideology on its convention in Fiuggi, the ANs official newspaper was Secolo dItalia. Former MSI members were still the bulk of the new party. The name was suggested by an article on the Italian newspaper Il Tempo written in 1992 by Domenico Fisichella, starting in the 1990s, the MSI gradually transformed into a mainstream right-wing party, culminating in its 1995 dissolution into AN. The party was part of all three House of Freedoms coalition governments led by Silvio Berlusconi, Gianfranco Fini was notably nominated Deputy Prime Minister after the 2001 general election and was Foreign Minister from November 2004 to May 2006. In occasion of the 2006 general election, AN ran within the House of Freedoms, the centre-right lost by 24,000 votes in favour of the centre-left coalition The Union. Individually AN received nearly 5 million votes, amounting to 12. 3%, in July 2007 a group of splinters led by Francesco Storace formed The Right, which was officially founded on 10 November. Seven MPs of AN, including Teodoro Buontempo and Daniela Santanchè, in November 2007 Silvio Berlusconi announced that Forza Italia would have soon merged or transformed into The People of Freedom party. In an atmosphere of reconciliation with Gianfranco Fini, Berlusconi also stated that the new party could see the participation of other parties. Finally, on 8 February, Berlusconi and Fini agreed to form a joint list under the banner of the The People of Freedom, after the victory of the PdL in the 2008 general election, AN was merged into the PdL in early 2009. Distinguishing itself from the MSI, the party distanced itself from Benito Mussolini and Fascism and that is why the party was strong in Rome and Lazio, where most civil servants live. Moreover, AN presented itself as a party promoting national cohesion, national identity, some of these positions were not shared by many members of the party, most of whom staunchly opposed stem cell research and artificial insemination. Social Right, led by Gianni Alemanno, advocated a more social approach to policy and was considered at the right of the party. It had close ties with the General Labour Union, d-Destra, led by Francesco Storace, was the most conservative component of the party, proud of the MSIs tradition and in open opposition to Fini. Formed as a split from the Social Right, in July 2007 the group finally left AN, Christian Reformists was a minor Christian democratic faction. This was not a faction but an official organism within the party and expressed the position of the party on ethical. Some members of the Council, such as Pedrizzi and Mantovano were described as members of an unofficial Catholic Right faction. The party had roughly 10–15% support across Italy, having its stongholds in Central and Southern Italy, scoring badly in Lombardy and Sicily, from that moment the party suffered an electoral decline, but remained the third force of Italian politics
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