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Piero Fassino

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Piero Fassino
Fassino in 2022
Mayor of Turin
In office
16 May 2011 – 20 June 2016
Preceded bySergio Chiamparino
Succeeded byChiara Appendino
Minister of Justice
In office
26 April 2000 – 11 June 2001
Prime MinisterGiuliano Amato
Preceded byOliviero Diliberto
Succeeded byRoberto Castelli
Minister of Foreign Trade
In office
21 October 1998 – 26 April 2000
Prime MinisterMassimo D'Alema
Preceded byAugusto Fantozzi
Succeeded byEnrico Letta
Secretary of the Democrats of the Left
In office
18 November 2001 – 14 October 2007
Preceded byWalter Veltroni
Succeeded byOffice abolished
Member of the Chamber of Deputies
Incumbent
Assumed office
23 March 2018
ConstituencyEmilia-Romagna (2018–2022)
Veneto (since 2022)
In office
15 April 1994 – 19 July 2011
ConstituencyLiguria (1994–1996)
Venaria Reale (1996–2006)
Piedmont (2006–2011)
Personal details
Born (1949-10-07) 7 October 1949 (age 75)
Avigliana, Italy
Political partyPCI (1968–1991)
PDS (1991–1998)
DS (1998–2007)
PD (since 2007)
SpouseAnna Maria Serafini
Alma materUniversity of Turin

Piero Franco Rodolfo Fassino (born 7 October 1949) is an Italian politician. He was Mayor of Turin from 2011 until 2016.[1]

Early life and education

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Fassino was born in Avigliana, Piedmont (province of Turin), in a traditional socialist family. His father Eugenio was a partisan, commander of the 41st Garibaldi Brigade, and his paternal grandfather Piero was beaten to death by the Italian Fascists in 1944 because he did not want to reveal his son's hideout, while his maternal grandfather Cesare Grisa was one of the founders of the Italian Socialist Party. He graduated in Political Sciences.

Political career

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Early career

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Fassino registered with the Italian Communist Youth Federation of Turin in 1968. In 1975, he was elected as a Member of the City Council of the Piedmont regional capital, a position he remained in for ten years. From 1985 to 1990 he was Provincial Councillor, also in Turin. He was also secretary of the provincial Italian Communist Party (PCI) federation of Turin from 1983 to 1987, when he was elected as a member of the National Secretary's Office of the party, first as the Secretary's Office Coordinator, then as Responsible of Organization, during the period where the party was transformed from the PCI into the Democratic Party of the Left (PDS).

From 1991 to 1996, Fassino was International Secretary of the new party; in 1994 he was first elected to the Chamber of Deputies. Re-elected in 1996, he was appointed in 1998 as Minister for Foreign Commerce in the government headed by Massimo D'Alema. Between 2000 and 2001 he was Minister of Justice in the Giuliano Amato government.[1] Candidate as vice-premier of The Olive Tree coalition in a ticket with former Rome Mayor Francesco Rutelli for the 2001 general elections in Italy won by the House of Freedoms rival coalition, he was still re-elected as a Member of Parliament.

In addition to his role in Parliament, Fassino was a member of Italian delegation to the Assembly of the Western European Union from 2006 until 2011, where he served as chairman of the Committee on Political Affairs and as rapporteur for the Western Balkans.[2]

From 2007 until 2010, Fassino served as the European Union's special envoy for Myanmar, appointed by the Union’s High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy, Javier Solana.[3]

Secretary of Democrats of the Left

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In 2001, during the National Party Congress of the Democrats of the Left, Fassino was elected as secretary (a position of leader in Italian political parties). He was then re-elected in February 2005, during the party congress.

In 2003, Fassino and other high-ranking party members – including Romano Prodi, Lamberto Dini and Walter Veltroni – were accused of taking millions of pounds in backhanders when state-run Telecom Italia bought a 29% stake in Telekom Serbia in 1997.[4] During his time in office, Fassino asserted that Il Giornale, a right-wing newspaper, published confidential wiretap transcripts shortly before the 2006 election to create the impression that he had exercised improper pressure in the attempted takeover of Banca Nazionale del Lavoro by insurer Unipol in 2005. In 2013, a court awarded 80,000 euros in damages to Fassino for the incident.[5]

Mayor of Turin

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Fassino served as Mayor of Turin from 2011 until 2016. In the 2016 elections, he was defeated by Chiara Appendino, who overturned an 11-point gap after the first round to win 55 per cent of the vote.[6]

Back to the Parliament

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Fassino has been serving as a member of the Italian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe since 2018.[7] As member of the Democratic Party, he is part of the Socialists, Democrats and Greens Group. In the Assembly, he serves on the Committee on the Honouring of Obligations and Commitments by Member States of the Council of Europe (since 2018); the Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy (since 2018); and the Sub-Committee on the Middle East and the Arab World (since 2019). He also serves as the Assembly's co-rapporteur on Serbia (alongside Ian Liddell-Grainger)[8] and Libya.[9]

Recognition

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Fassino received the America Award from the Italy-USA Foundation in 2010.

Other activities

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Personal life

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Fassino is married to Anna Maria Serafini, who was elected to the Italian Senate in 2006. He considers himself Roman Catholic.[11]

Electoral history

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Election House Constituency Party Votes Result
1994 Chamber of Deputies Liguria PDS –[a] checkY Elected
1996 Chamber of Deputies Venaria Reale PDS 35,887 checkY Elected
2001 Chamber of Deputies Venaria Reale DS 42,871 checkY Elected
2006 Chamber of Deputies Piedmont 1 DS –[a] checkY Elected
2008 Chamber of Deputies Piedmont 1 PD –[a] checkY Elected
2018 Chamber of Deputies Emilia-Romagna 2 PD –[a] checkY Elected
2022 Chamber of Deputies Veneto 1 PD –[a] checkY Elected
  1. ^ a b c d e Elected in a closed list proportional representation system.
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References

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  1. ^ a b Prodi Clears Final Hurdle as Deficit Pressures Mount 11 May 2006, Bloomberg L.P.. Accessed 15 April 2009. Archived 15 April 2009.
  2. ^ House of the living dead European Voice, April 14, 2010.
  3. ^ Toby Vogel (November 14, 2007), EU wants Asean to turn screw on Myanmar European Voice.
  4. ^ Sophie Arie (September 1, 2003), Kickback claims hit Italian left The Guardian.
  5. ^ Manuela D'Alessandro (March 7, 2013), Berlusconi sentenced in wiretap trial Reuters.
  6. ^ Crispian Balmer and Gavin Jones (19 June 2016), Blow for Italy's PM as 5-Star makes breakthrough in mayoral vote Reuters.
  7. ^ Piero Fassino Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
  8. ^ Monitoring co-rapporteurs for Serbia deeply concerned by financial investigations against prominent NGOs and media Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, press release of 30 July 2020.
  9. ^ Rapporteur welcomes inter-Libyan dialogue in Bouznika Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, press release of 6 October 2020.
  10. ^ Members of the Council European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR).
  11. ^ Ceccarelli, Filippo (27 September 2005). "E Fassino rivela Sono credente" [And Fassino reveals: I'm a believer]. la Repubblica - Archivio.
Political offices
Preceded by Minister of Foreign Trade
1998–2000 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Minister of Justice
2000–2001 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Mayor of Turin
2011–2016 		Succeeded by
Party political offices
Preceded by Secretary of the Democrats of the Left
2001–2007 		Succeeded byas Secretary of the Democratic Party
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