The Honourable Gianni Alemanno |
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Mayor of Rome | |
In office 28 April 2008 – 11 June 2013 |
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Preceded by | Walter Veltroni |
Succeeded by | Ignazio Marino |
Minister of Agricultural and Forestry Policies | |
In office 11 June 2001 – 17 May 2006 |
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Prime Minister | Silvio Berlusconi |
Preceded by | Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio |
Succeeded by | Paolo De Castro |
Member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies for Lazio |
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In office 15 April 1994 – 28 April 2008 |
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Constituency | Rome |
Personal details | |
Born |
Giovanni Alemanno March 3, 1958 Bari, Italy |
Political party |
Italian Social Movement (ca. 1980–1995) National Alliance (1995–2009) The People of Freedom (2009–2013) Italy First (2013–2014) Brothers of Italy (2014–2015) National Action (2015–2017) National Movement for Sovereignty (2017–present) |
Spouse(s) | Isabella Rauti (m. 1992) |
Children | Manfredi (b. 1995) |
Alma mater | University of Perugia |
Profession | Journalist, engineer, freelancer |
Religion | Roman Catholicism |
Giovanni "Gianni" Alemanno (born 3 March 1958) is an Italian politician who from April 2008 until June 2013 was Mayor of Rome for the centre-right People of Freedom.
At an early age Alemanno joined the neo-fascist/post-fascist Italian Social Movement, and he became national secretary of the youth organization of the party in 1988. After being elected regional deputy of Lazio in 1990, he was elected for the first time to the Chamber of Deputies in the 1994 general election.
In 1995 he joined the newly formed National Alliance party, which succeeded the Italian Social Movement following its repudiation of extremism. Together with Francesco Storace, he founded Social Right, a national- and social-conservative faction within National Alliance.
Between 2001 and 2006, Alemanno was Minister of Agriculture under Silvio Berlusconi (in Berlusconi's 2nd and 3rd cabinets).
After having been heavily defeated by Walter Veltroni in the 2006 mayoral election of Rome, in April 2008 he defeated Francesco Rutelli and became Mayor of the city. Alemanno rejected a formal alliance with the far-right party, but his critics emphasized that his victory was greeted by crowds of supporters, among them far right skinheads, who chanted "Duce! Duce!" and raised their arms in a fascist salute; then Alemanno said: «People calling me Duce make me laugh. I’m not at all fascist and I think that today the word belongs to the history books. I’ve grown to hate all forms of totalitarianism, whether of the left or of the right».