Francesco Rutelli

Francesco Rutelli
Deputy Prime Minister of Italy
In office 17 May 2006 – 8 May 2008
Prime Minister	Romano Prodi
Preceded by	Gianfranco Fini Giulio Tremonti
Succeeded by	Angelino Alfano
Minister of Cultural Heritage
In office 17 May 2006 – 8 May 2008
Prime Minister	Romano Prodi
Preceded by	Rocco Buttiglione
Succeeded by	Sandro Bondi
Minister of the Environment
In office 28 April 1993 – 4 May 1993
Prime Minister	Carlo Azeglio Ciampi
Preceded by	Valdo Spini
Succeeded by	Valdo Spini
Mayor of Rome
In office 6 December 1993 – 8 January 2001
Preceded by	Franco Carraro
Succeeded by	Walter Veltroni
Parliamentary offices Member of the Senate In office 29 April 2008 – 14 March 2013 Constituency Umbria Member of the Chamber of Deputies In office 30 May 2001 – 28 April 2008 Constituency Rome In office 23 April 1992 – 14 January 1994 Constituency Rome In office 12 July 1983 – 5 July 1990 Constituency Rome(1983–1987) Naples(1987–1990)
Personal details
Born	(1954-06-14)14 June 1954 Rome,Italy
Political party	PR(1972–1989) VA(1989–1990) FdV(1990–1999) Dem(1999–2002) DL(2002–2007) PD(2007–2009) ApI(2009–2016) PDE(since 2016)
Spouse	Barbara Palombelli ​ (m.1982)​
Alma mater	University of Rome La Sapienza

Francesco Rutelli(born 14 June 1954) is an Italian journalist and former politician, who is the president ofANICANational Association of Film and Audiovisual Industry, since October 2016 and re-elected for the 2020–2022 term, plus ANICA Servizi. He's the legal representative of MIA (Italian Audiovisual Market). He also chairs the "Centro per un Futuro Sostenibile" (Centre for a Sustainable Future – a bipartisan think tank on climate change and environmental issues).He was during 15 years co-president of theEuropean Democratic Party,a centristEuropean political party.He has beenMayor of Rome1994–2001,and president of thecentristpartyDemocracy is Freedom – The Daisy2002–2007.He was the Deputy Prime Minister andMinister of Culture and Tourismin thesecond cabinetof Prime MinisterRomano Prodi2006–2008.Currently he also chairs Incontro di Civiltà (Civilizations Meeting); Videocittà, Moving Images Festival (Rome, 2018–2019); Priorità Cultura(Culture First) that gathers outstanding Italian personalities, engaged on Heritage conservation and promotion, contemporary arts, public-private partnership in the many fields of Culture.

Biography

Born in Rome, he entered politics joining theRadical Party,for which he was then elected secretary in 1980, aged 26. With the Radicals, Rutelli championed humanitarian andlibertarianpolicies such asunilateral disarmament,abolition ofnuclear power plants,conscientious objection to the compulsorynational service,eradication of world hunger, decriminalisation of the use of cannabis. At those times the political action of the Italian Radicals was self-defined as inspired by theGandhiannon-violentmovement.

First elected as deputy in 1983, confirming his office in 1987 and 1992, he then joined theFederation of the Greensin the late 1980s, becoming one of the party's leading figures, and developing new environmental campaigns.

He was then chosen asMinistry of Environment and Urban Areasin 1993, although he resigned after one day in the post. That same year, he was first elected Mayor of Rome ascentre-leftcoalition candidate, defeatingcentre-rightcandidateGianfranco Fini.Being reelected in 1997, with 985.000 popular votes, the highest in the history of the City, Rutelli held the position until 2001.

He also served as a Member of European Parliament from 1999 to 2004. There he's been committed to promote initiatives for the abolition of death penalty,freedom of information improvementand against corruption. From the mid-1990s onwards his views appeared increasingly moderate.

Rutelli was defeated bySilvio Berlusconiin the2001 general electionas Prime Minister candidate for the centre-leftOlive Treecoalition, gathering 16.4 million votes, against 16.9 million of the right wing coalition. He was also one of the founders of theDemocrats,which became part ofDemocracy is Freedom – The Daisy.Rutelli led the party until it merged into theDemocratic Partyon 14 October 2007.

Francesco Rutelli's role in the Daisy – a party with strong ties with Italian Christian heritage – is considered by his opponents a singular upshot after a fairly erratic journey within Italian progressive politics, mainly because of his past social-libertarian and green experiences.

In 2006 he was named Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Culture in thecabinetof Romano Prodi during Prodi's second term asItalian Prime Minister.

In February 2008 he announced his intention to run again as mayor of Rome leading a local centre-left coalition, but lost the local elections on 28 April 2008 against centre-rightGianni Alemanno.

In October 2009 he announced his intention to leave theDemocratic Party.After leaving the Democratic Party, he co-founded theAlliance for Italy(ApI), a centrist, liberal party which ran joint lists with theUnion of the Centre(UdC) in most regions in the regional elections of March 2010. In December 2010, the ApI became a founding member of the new centrist formationNew Pole for Italy,and Rutelli became one of the new group's main leaders, along with UdC leader Pier Ferdinando Casini and Gianfranco Fini, the leader of theFuture and Freedomparty and former leader of the post-fascistItalian Social Movementand the national-conservativeNational Alliance,until 2012.

He has been again elected to the Camera dei Deputati in 2001 and 2006, and to the Senate in 2008, when he became the Chairman of COPASIR (Parliamentary Committee of Overview on Intelligence), where he drafted and published reports on human trafficking as a strategic threat, and the first Report to the Parliament and the Government on Cyberspace and its implications for national security.

International

Rutelli founded theEuropean Democratic Party,together with the French political leaderFrançois Bayrou.He was unanimously voted co-president of the party (2004-2019). The members of the EDP in the European Parliament sit in theALDE Group(Alliance of Democrats and Liberals) and then the Renew Group. At the end of the 1990s he was member of the Committee of Regions, where he chaired the Urban Policies Committee, and was an Advisor for Urban Development to the former UN Secretary-GeneralBoutros Boutros Ghali.

He is now the President of the political foundation affiliated to the EDP, the Institute of European Democrats.

He has been elected to theEuropean Parliament(1999-2004), sitting in theALDE Group,introducing Reports and many Parliamentary initiatives. He has been one of the main promoter of the Referendum for a stronger integration between Italy and the EU (held in 1989, with an overwhelming YES vote – 88%); he has been awarded the Crocodile-Altiero Spinelli Prize, as a proEuropean personality.

Serving in the Italian Parliament, he has been member of the Foreign Affairs Committee. He also chaired for two terms the Human Rights Committee in theChamber of Deputies.

He got a Diploma in International Organizations from the Italian Society for International Organization, SIOI. He also has been the Honorary President (2013-2014) of the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy (Berlin). He promoted the "Cultural and Creative Industries Italy-China" Forums (Beijing, 2014; Milan, Venice, 2015). He co-chaired (2015) the Silk Road Cities Alliance (Beijing).

Rutelli quit University in 1977; 40 years later, at the age of 62, a degree in Landscape and environmental planning and design, with highest grade and honors by Università La Sapienza and Tuscia University.

Culture

His family has ancestral ties with culture and the arts, rooted in the regions of Marche, Emilia, Sicily and Rome.

Mario Rutelli(his great-grandfather) was the author of the Najadi Fountain in Rome (1901), the Anita Garibaldi's Monument, and dozens of public and private sculptures; among them, some of the most important monuments in Palermo (Sicily). Another great-grandfather, Felice Martini from Parma, was the Architect of the latest renovation (1873) of the historic Arsenale in Venice. Grandfather Ottavio Marini was the Director of Antiquities and Belle Arti of the Italian Government (1910s-1920s). The Rutelli family, in Palermo, is associated to many relevant developments: the construction of Teatro Massimo, the buildings in via Roma and on the seaside, Mondello's liberty buildings.

In the last twenty years, as Mayor of Rome and, furtherly, as Minister of Culture,Francesco Rutelli has contributed to the creation and development of many crucial infrastructures, cultural institutions, museums and galleries in Italy. Among them, the Auditorium-Città della Musica (an institution awaited in Rome for 60 years, designed by Renzo Piano), the MAXXI Museum, the new Ara Pacis shrine/museum, a vast restoration and archeological excavation program and the opening of over 20 museums and exhibition spaces in Rome, including the National Gallery of Ancient Art, the Civic Gallery of Modern Art (later renamed MACRO) and the Scuderie del Quirinale complex. He oversaw the restoration of San Carlo Theatre (Naples) and Petruzzelli Theatre (Bari), the construction of the new Maggio Fiorentino Auditorium (Florence), the radical restructuring of Museo Archeologico diReggio Calabriaand the conclusion of the Reggia di Venaria (Torino) restoration. He enacted a new Landscape Code and a new tax credit/tax shelter system that revitalized the movie industry. He established the Teatro Festival in Naples and re-launched the International Festival of Spoleto. He promoted the first (and only) White Book on Italian creative industries.

Francesco Rutelli led a significant Cultural Diplomacy strategy for Italy, and through successful negotiations managed the recovery of priceless stolen crafts and historical masterpieces, in theUNESCOConventions framework, in cooperation with international museums and cultural institutions, developing new agreements on lending policies and scientific cooperation.

In 2016, Olivetti Company, owned byTIM-Telecom,asked Francesco Rutelli to chair the Olivetti Design Contest, devoted to award young Italian designers.

Personal life

Rutelli is married toBarbara Palombelli,a radio (Rai Radio 2) and television journalist for the Italian broadcasting companyMediaset;they have four children, 3 of which are adopted. After a period of skepticism, now he considers himselfCatholic.

Rutelli is a supporter ofRomanfootball clubS.S. Lazio.

Electoral history

Election	House	Constituency	Party		Votes	Result
1983	Chamber of Deputies	Rome–Viterbo–Latina–Frosinone		PR	3,648	YElected
1987	Chamber of Deputies	Naples–Caserta		PR	16,040	YElected
1992	Chamber of Deputies	Rome–Viterbo–Latina–Frosinone		FdV	10,900	YElected
2001	Chamber of Deputies	Rome–Prenestino Labicano		Ulivo	36,457	YElected
2006	Chamber of Deputies	Lazio 1		Ulivo	–	YElected
2008	Senate of the Republic	Umbria		PD	–	YElected

External links

• Official website
• Personal Page in the Italian Parliament web site
• Media related toFrancesco Rutelliat Wikimedia Commons