Rosa Russo Iervolino

Rosa Russo Iervolino (2010)

Rosa Russo Iervolino (actually Rosa Iervolino Russo , also spelled Jervolino ; * September 17, 1936 in Naples as Rosa Iervolino ) is an Italian politician . Between 1987 and 1999 she was a member of the government at the head of various ministries (including education and home affairs) and from 1992 to 1994 she was the last president of the Democrazia Cristiana . From 2001 to 2011 she was mayor of Naples.

Family and work

Rosa Russo Iervolino is the daughter of Maria De Unterrichter Jervolino and Angelo Raffaele Jervolino . Her mother was a member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies and State Secretary for Education from 1954 to 1959 and for Health in 1963. Her father was Minister of Post from 1948 to 1950 and Minister of Health from 1962 to 1963. Her great-great-uncle Franz von Unterrichter was a member of the Frankfurt National Assembly.

She has a doctorate in law. Her dissertation dealt with the topic of "equal pay for men and women" in the world of work. From 1961 to 1968 she was employed by the Italian Council for Economy and Labor ( CNEL ) and then from 1968 to 1973 for the Italian Ministry of Finance .

Russo Iervolino is a doctor's widow and has three children, Michele, Maria Cristina and Francesca.

Political career

Rosa Russo Iervolino as MP in 1994

Rosa Iervolino joined the Democrazia Cristiana (DC) in 1954 , in which her parents were also active. From 1968 to 1978 she was Vice-President of the Italian Women's Center, which is affiliated with the Democrazia Cristiana. In 1979 she was elected to the Senate for the first time (she resigned her mandate in 1992) and from 1985 to 1987 she was chair of the parliamentary committee for the supervision of the public broadcasting company RAI .

From 1987 to 1992 she was Minister of Social Affairs (a then newly created ministry) under the Prime Ministers Giovanni Goria , Ciriaco De Mita and Giulio Andreotti . From 1992 to 1994 she was Minister of Education under Giuliano Amato and Carlo Azeglio Ciampi . In this position, she refused to distribute anti- AIDS comics with Lupo Alberto in schools that teach the correct use of condoms. Russo Iervolino initiated a school reform: the individual schools should have their own legal personality and financial autonomy. Critics feared, however, that this would result in lower financial resources and larger classes, which is why there was strong resistance and protests against it.

As the successor to Ciriaco De Mitas, she was elected President of the National Congress of Democrazia Cristiana in 1992. She was - as the first woman - formally chairman of the largest party in the country, but the day-to-day political leadership was traditionally held by the “national secretary” ( Mino Martinazzoli at the time ). The DC was in a serious crisis as a result of the Mani pulite investigation that unearthed a massive corruption scandal ( Tangentopoli ) and Mafia allegations against longtime DC leader and multiple Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti. Russo Iervolino and Martinazzoli, who themselves were not involved in the scandals, tried to make a fresh start, which resulted in the renaming of Democrazia Cristiana in Partito Popolare Italiano (PPI for short) in January 1994 . Russo Iervolino was interim president of the PPI until July 1994. She achieved that the PPI "inherited" 85 percent of the assets of the collapsing DC, while 15 percent went to the split-off Centro Cristiano Democratico (CCD).

In the parliamentary elections in March 1994 , the PPI suffered a heavy defeat, losing almost two thirds of its voters compared to the earlier DC. Russo Iervolino herself, however, succeeded in entering the Chamber of Deputies , where she represented the constituency of Naples- Fuorigrotta until 2001 . From 1998 to 1999 she was interior minister in the center-left D'Alema I cabinet . She was also the first woman in this position. In 1999 she was temporarily considered a promising candidate for the office of President of Italy . In the end, however, she received only 16 of the 1,010 votes in the electoral assembly and was therefore subject to the non-partisan candidate Carlo Azeglio Ciampi in the first ballot .

Mayor Rosa Russo Iervolino in 2003 with Antonio Bassolino, President of the Campania Region

In the 2001 local elections, she was elected mayor of Naples as a candidate for the center-left alliance L'Ulivo with 48.8% in the first ballot and 52.9% in the runoff election. The PPI merged in 2002 with smaller parties of the L'Ulivo alliance to form Democrazia è Libertà - La Margherita , to which Russo Iervolino belonged in the following period. In the local elections in 2006 she was re-elected with 57.2% in the first ballot. Since 2007 she has been a member of the Partito Democratico , the center-left collecting party that succeeds La Margherita and L'Ulivo. When the PD was founded, she was a member of the comitato nazionale , i.e. the board of directors. In the mayoral election in 2011, she no longer ran.

The name

The different versions of her name are a bit confusing. Officially, her name is Rosa Iervolino Russo , since according to the law in Italy at the time of their wedding, a woman's maiden name could only come before the husband's name. Her name was also on the ballot paper. However, the order Rosa Russo Iervolino is generally used . She herself, however, signs with Rosa Russo Jervolino or, for short, with RRJ . The spelling with 'I' instead of 'J' is a spelling mistake by the registration office (the 'J' does not actually appear in the Italian alphabet , it is only used in foreign words and proper names). Her followers call her Rosetta for short .

Web links

Commons : Rosa Russo Iervolino  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Entry in the Camera dei Deputati, XIII. Legislative period (Italian)
• Article in the World , August 21, 2001

Individual evidence

1. ^ Raffaele Carcano: Le scelte di vita di chi pensa di averne una sola. Nessun Dogma, Rome 2016, p. 95.
2. ^ Simona Santoni: Scuola - vent'anni di riforme, vent'anni di protests. In: Sky TG 24 , October 31, 2008.
3. ^ Ai centristi 15 per cento dell 'ex DC. In: Corriere della Sera , February 1, 1994, p. 4.
4. ^ Maria De Instructor Jervolino, quella donna trentina che da cattolica amò e curò il Sud. In: Ancora online , November 10, 2014.