Roberto Formigoni
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Roberto Formigoni (born March 30, 1947) is an Italian politician, and the current (from April 2005) President of Lombardy, Italy.
[edit] Biography
Roberto Formigoni, son of Emilio Formigoni, was born in Lecco.
He began very early his political career in Christian Democracy, through youth movements such as Gioventù Studentesca and Comunione e Liberazione (of which he became the most representative leader). These movements, which have in recent years withdrawn from partisan politics, were especially distinguished for their Catholic vision, which some declared to be an integralist or fundamentalist position. Thus these entities were not officially embodied in the political structure of DC, but were, so they claimed, inspired by the Catholic tradition of the main party and effectively supported it in practical politics, despite their severe criticism of DC's pragmatism which led to repeated concessions in favor of non-Catholic groups.
In 1976 he founded the "Popular Movement" (re-using the name of the Popolari, of which the same DC was a development) and was elected a deputy in both the European and Italian Parliaments. He was also the Vice-President of the European Parliament for 5 years and served as under-secretary for the Environment in the Italian government.
In 1990 he garnered attention when he was involved in a mission to Iraq which successfully concluded with the freeing of some Italian technicians who were hostages of the local government.
In 1995, founded with Rocco Buttiglione the United Christian Democrats party. In 1998 he moved to Forza Italia, when Rocco Buttiglione briefly decided to support the government of Massimo D'Alema.
He was elected as President of Lombardy in 1995.
Formigoni became famous to the general public after he publicly and repeatedly declared his virginity, as did his colleague Ms. Rosy Bindi.
Promoting a decidedly conservative platform on many issues, resulting in a political backlash from some liberal groups, President Formigoni was re-elected in 2000 carrying over 62% of the approximately 3.5 million votes, and in 2005.
In early 2005 he became embroiled in the Iraq Oil for Food Scandal when an investigation by Il Sole 24 Ore (Italy's leading economic daily) and The Financial Times revealed that he had received an allocation of 24 million barrels of oil from Saddam Hussein's regime. Formigoni was later found not guilty.