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Piero Franco Rodolfo Fassino (born 7 October 1949) is an Italian politician with the Democratic Party. He was Mayor of Turin from 2011 until 2016 and is a former national secretary of the Democrats of the Left party.[1]
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Piero Fassino
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Fassino in 2022
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| 38th Mayor of Turin | |
| In office 16 May 2011 – 20 June 2016 | |
| Preceded by | Sergio Chiamparino |
| Succeeded by | Chiara Appendino |
| Minister of Justice | |
| In office 26 April 2000 – 11 June 2001 | |
| Prime Minister | Giuliano Amato |
| Preceded by | Oliviero Diliberto |
| Succeeded by | Roberto Castelli |
| Minister of Foreign Trade | |
| In office 21 October 1998 – 26 April 2000 | |
| Prime Minister | Romano Prodi |
| Preceded by | Augusto Fantozzi |
| Succeeded by | Enrico Letta |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1949-10-07) 7 October 1949 (age 74) Avigliana, Italy |
| Political party | PCI (1968–1991) PDS (1991–1998) DS (1998–2007) PD (since 2007) |
| Spouse | Anna Maria Serafini |
| Alma mater | University of Turin |
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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.
Fassino registered with the Youth Communist Federation of Turin in 1968, becoming their secretary three years later. 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; his first election to the Chamber of Deputies (the lower house of the Italian parliament) was in 1994. Re-elected in 1996, he was appointed in 1998 as Minister for Foreign Commerce in the government headed by Massimo D'Alema. From 2000, 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 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.[2] 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.[3]
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.[4]
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.[5]
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]
Fassino has also served as a member of the Italian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from 1994 until 1996; from 2006 until 2011; and 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-rapporteuronSerbia (alongside Ian Liddell-Grainger)[8] and Libya.[9]
Fassino received the America Award from the Italy-USA Foundation in 2010.
Fassino is married to Anna Maria Serafini, who was elected to the Italian Senate (the second chamber of the Italian parliament) in 2006. He considers himself Roman Catholic.[11]
| 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 by asSecretary of the Democratic Party |
| Diplomatic posts | ||
| New office | European Union Special Envoy for Burma 2007–present |
Succeeded by TBD |