Paolo Ferrero

Paolo Ferrero (2008)

Paolo Ferrero (born November 17, 1960 in Pomaretto , Turin province ) is an Italian politician of the Partito della Rifondazione Comunista (PRC). He was Italian Minister of Social Affairs from May 2006 to May 2008, Chairman of the PRC from 2008 to 2017 and has been Deputy Chairman of the Party of the European Left since 2016 .

Life and political career

Ferrero grew up in the Turin area , most recently in Villar Perosa , where the Agnelli family lived . At 17 he joined the Democrazia Proletaria . After graduating from commercial college , Ferrero worked at the Fiat plant in Villar Perosa from 1978 . In contrast to most of the representatives of his party, Ferrero is a professed Christian as a member of the Italian Waldensian Church and headed the national youth association of the Chiesa Evangelica Valdese from 1986 to 1987 .

After the layoffs at Fiat (financed by the Cassa integrazione guadagni ), Ferrero became a full-time politician at the age of 27. In 1991, the Democrazia Proletaria participated in the founding of the Rifondazione Comunista , of which Ferrero has belonged ever since. From 1993 to 1997 he was a member of the Turin City Council and headed the council group of the PRC.

In 2006 , Ferrero was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in constituency II of the Piedmont region . After the coalition negotiations, he was the only minister in his party to be appointed head of social solidarity in the coalition cabinet of Prime Minister Romano Prodi . Anna Maria Cardano took over his parliamentary mandate .

From 2008 to 2017, Ferrero was the "national secretary" (ie chairman) of the PRC. In the regional election in Campania, he was the top candidate of the Federazione della Sinistra (joint list of the two communist parties PRC and PdCI ), but received only 1.4% of the vote. For the Italian parliamentary election in 2008 , Ferrero entered the Rivoluzione Civile list , which failed to pass the 4 percent hurdle. At the 5th Congress of the Party of the European Left in December 2016, he was elected one of the deputies of the chairman Gregor Gysi . In the 2017 local elections, Ferrero ran for mayor in the Piedmontese village of Angrogna and received 24% of the vote. For the 2019 European elections , he was a candidate for the La Sinistra list (PRC, Sinistra Italiana and L'Altra Europa ) in the constituency of northwest Italy, which, however, did not receive a seat.

Web links

• Short biography on the website of the Council of Ministers (it)