Rutelli, Francesco

(1954– )

   Currently deputy prime minister and minister for cultural heritage in the government elected in April 2006 and headed by Romano Prodi, Francesco Rutelli is one of the most prominent figures in contemporary Italian politics. Despite his relative youth, he has had a turbulent and lengthy political career. He entered politics as a member of the Partito Radicale/Radical Party (PR) in the 1970s and made his name in the PR’s battles to liberalize the divorce and abortion laws. In 1981, he became leader of the PR and was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1983. An ardent environmentalist, Rutelli passed to the Verdi (Greens) in the late 1980s and became national coordinator of the Federazione dei Verdi/Green Federation in 1992. In April 1993, he was nominated to be minister of the environment by Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, but he resigned, along with the ministers nominated by the Partito Democratico della Sinistra/Democratic Party of the Left (PDS), after just one day to protest the Chamber of Deputy’s decision to deny a judicial request authorizing an investigation into the personal affairs of Bettino Craxi.

   In December 1993, Rutelli became mayor of his native Rome, beating Gianfranco Fini, the national secretary of the Movimento Sociale Italiano/Italian Social Movement (MSI), in a run-off. Reelected in 1997, he was a success as mayor, winning plaudits for his exemplary organization of the Papal Jubilee in 2000, when millions of young Catholics descended upon Rome. Rutelli moved toward Catholicismin the 1990s, and this, together with his high public profile as mayor, caused the parties of the center-left to prefer him to Giulio Amatoas their candidate for the prime ministership in the general elections of May 2001. Rutelli lost, but he performed well during the electoral campaign. Rutelli became leader of Democrazia e Liberta/Democracy and Liberty (DL) in 2002. Since then, he has been one of the most influential figures in Italian politics.