Pier Ferdinando Casini
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Pier Ferdinando (or Pierferdinando) Casini (born on 3 December 1955 in Bologna, Italy) is an Italian politician.
President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies from 2001 to 2006, he is currently President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), of the Christian Democratic International (CDI) and member of the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats (UDC).
[edit] Carrer
Graduated with a degree in Law, he was first elected in 1983 for the Christian Democracy party. In 1993, he was amongst the founders of the Christian Democratic Centre (CCD), which merged into UDC in 2002. In 2001, after Berlusconi's victory in the general election, Casini was chosen by the newly-formed parliament as President of the Chamber of Deputies (the Italian lower house of parliament).
Today he is widely regarded as one of the primary members of the House of Freedoms, and sometimes spoken of as a possible successor to Berlusconi himself as leader of the coalition.
[edit] Familiar notes
After his divorce from Roberta Lubich (mother of his two daughters, Maria Carolina and Benedetta), he starting dating and eventually moved in with Azzurra Caltagirone, daughter of the famous Roman entrepreneur and publisher Franco Caltagirone. Later they would have a daughter. His detractors consider his divorce and cohabitation to be inconsistent with his political beliefs and strongly Catholic thought.
Preceded by: Luciano Violante |
President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies 2001-2006 |
Succeeded by: Fausto Bertinotti |