Silvio Berlusconi was an Italian media tycoon and politician who served as the prime minister of Italy in four governments from 1994 to 1995,2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies from 1994 to 2013;a member of the Senate of the Republic from 2022 until his death in 2023,and previously from March to November 2013;and a member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2019 to 2022,and previously from 1999 to 2001. With a net worth of US$6.8 billion as of June 2023,Berlusconi was the third-wealthiest person in Italy at the time of his death.
Roberto Formigoni is an Italian politician. He was the president of Lombardy from 1995 to 2013. He is the former unofficial political spokesperson of the Communion and Liberation movement. On 21 February 2019,the Supreme Court of Cassation,the highest court in Italy,found him guilty of corruption and sentenced him to a definitive jail term of 5 years and 10 months. As a result,he was detained in the prison of Bollate,near Milan,for a few months in 2019 before getting house arrest. He was released in November 2023.
Lega Nord,whose complete name is Lega Nord per l'Indipendenza della Padania,is a right-wing,federalist,populist and conservative political party in Italy. In the run-up of the 2018 general election,the party was rebranded as Lega,without changing its official name. The party was nonetheless frequently referred to only as "Lega" even before the rebranding,and informally as the Carroccio. The party's latest elected leader was Matteo Salvini.
The Italian Republican Party is a political party in Italy established in 1895,which makes it the oldest political party still active in the country. The PRI identifies with 19th-century classical radicalism,as well as Mazzinianism,and its modern incarnation is associated with liberalism,social liberalism,and centrism. The PRI has old roots and a long history that began with a left-wing position,being the heir of the Historical Far Left and claiming descent from the political thought of Giuseppe Mazzini and Giuseppe Garibaldi. With the rise of the Italian Communist Party and the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) to its left,it was associated with centre-left politics. The early PRI was also known for its anti-clerical,anti-monarchist,republican,and later anti-fascist stances. While maintaining those traits,during the second half of the 20th century the party moved towards the centre on the left–right political spectrum,becoming increasingly economically liberal.
la Repubblica is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper with an average circulation of 151,309 copies in May 2023. It was founded in 1976 in Rome by Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso and led by Eugenio Scalfari,Carlo Caracciolo,and Arnoldo Mondadori Editore as a leftist newspaper,which proclaimed itself a "newspaper-party". During the early years of la Repubblica,its political views and readership ranged from the reformist left to the extraparliamentary left. Into the 21st century,it is identified with centre-left politics,and was known for its anti-Berlusconism,and Silvio Berlusconi's personal scorn for the paper.
Enrico Letta is an Italian politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy from April 2013 to February 2014,leading a grand coalition of centre-left and centre-right parties. He was the leader of the Democratic Party (PD) from March 2021 to March 2023. He is currently the Dean of IE University’s School of Politics,Economics and Global Affairs in Madrid,Spain.
Marco Travaglio is an Italian journalist,writer,and pundit. Since 2015,he has been the editor-in-chief of the independent daily newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano. Travaglio began his journalistic career in the late 1980s under Indro Montanelli at Il Giornale and La Voce,then in the 2000s worked at La Repubblica and L'Unità,before becoming one of the founders of Il Fatto Quotidiano in 2009. He is also the author of many books and a columnist for several other national newspapers and magazines,his main interests have been judicial reporting and current affairs and politics,dealing with issues ranging from the fight against the Italian Mafia to corruption.
Giorgio Napolitano was an Italian politician who served as the 11th president of Italy from 2006 to 2015,the first to be re-elected to the office. In office for 8 years and 244 days,he was the longest-serving president,until the record was surpassed by Sergio Mattarella in 2023. He also was the longest-lived president in the history of the Italian Republic,which has been in existence since 1946. Although he was a prominent figure of the First Italian Republic,he did not take part in the Constituent Assembly of Italy that drafted the Italian constitution;he is considered one of the symbols of the Second Italian Republic,which came about after the Tangentopoli scandal of the 1990s. Due to his dominant position in Italian politics,some critics have sometimes referred to him as Re Giorgio.
The People of Freedom was a centre-right political party in Italy. The PdL launched by Silvio Berlusconi as an electoral list,including Forza Italia and National Alliance,on 27 February for the 2008 Italian general election. The list was later transformed into a party during a party congress on 27–29 March 2009. The party's leading members included Angelino Alfano,Renato Schifani,Renato Brunetta,Roberto Formigoni,Maurizio Sacconi,Maurizio Gasparri,Mariastella Gelmini,Antonio Martino,Giancarlo Galan,Maurizio Lupi,Gaetano Quagliariello,Daniela Santanchè,Sandro Bondi,and Raffaele Fitto.
The Socialist Party was a tiny social-democratic political party in Italy.
Ignazio Benito Maria La Russa is an Italian politician who is serving as president of the Senate of the Republic since 13 October 2022. He is the first politician with a neo-fascist background to hold the position of President of the Senate,the second highest-ranking office of the Italian Republic.
Giuliano Ferrara is an Italian journalist,television presenter,and former politician. He is the founding editor of Il Foglio. Born into a communist and anti-fascist family,Ferrara took part to the student movement of the 1960s and 1970s. In 1973,he joined the Italian Communist Party (PCI) and carried out political activity within the PCI,and at the same time dedicated himself to journalism,collaborating with Corriere della Sera since 1982 with the column "Bretelle Rosse". Later in the 1980s,he joined the Italian Socialist Party (PSI),with which he became a member of the European Parliament (1989–1994).
Future and Freedom,whose full name was Future and Freedom for Italy,was a political party in Italy,comprising both liberal and national conservative elements.
Paolo Savona is an Italian economist,professor,and politician. He was the Italian Minister of European Affairs from 1 June 2018 until 8 March 2019,his second stint in government after 1993–1994. During the 2010s,Savona became one of the most fervent Eurosceptic economists in Italy.
Civic Choice was a centrist and liberal political party in Italy founded by Mario Monti. The party was formed in the run-up of the 2013 general election to support the outgoing Prime Minister Monti and continue his political agenda. In the election SC was part of a centrist coalition named With Monti for Italy,along with Union of the Centre of Pier Ferdinando Casini and Future and Freedom of Gianfranco Fini.
Act! was a centre-right liberal political party in Italy,based in Veneto.
Popular Alternative is a Christian-democratic political party in Italy that was founded on 18 March 2017 after the dissolution of New Centre-Right (NCD),one of the two parties that emerged at the break-up of The People of Freedom. "Popular" is a reference to popolarismo,the Italian variety of Christian democracy. The party has been a member of the European People's Party (EPP) since its foundation,having inherited the membership of the NCD.
The term State-Mafia Pact describes an alleged series of negotiations between important Italian government officials and Cosa Nostra members that began after the period of the 1992 and 1993 terror attacks by the Sicilian Mafia with the aim to reach a deal to stop the attacks;according to other sources and hypotheses,it began even earlier. In summary,the supposed cornerstone of the deal was an end to "the Massacre Season" in return for a reduction in the detention measures provided for Italy's Article 41-bis prison regime. 41-bis was the law by which the Antimafia pool led by Giovanni Falcone had condemned hundreds of mafia members to the "hard prison regime". The negotiation hypothesis has been the subject of long investigations,both by the courts and in the media. In 2021,the Court of Appeal of Palermo acquitted a close associate of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi,while upholding the sentences of the mafia bosses. This ruling was confirmed by the Italian Supreme Court of Cassation in 2023.
More Europe is a liberal and pro-European political party in Italy,part of the centre-left coalition and member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party.
Giampaolo Pansa was an Italian journalist-commentator and novelist. Most of his writings were rooted in recent or contemporary history,notably with regard to the Italian Resistance and the Benito Mussolini years.
