Roberto Maroni

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Roberto Maroni (born March 15, 1955) is an Italian former Welfare Minister. He was Minister of the Interior during the first Silvio Berlusconi administration, from 1994 to 1995 and Minister of Labour and Social Affairs during Berlusconi's second and third governments, from 2001 until May 2006. [1] He is a member of the Northern League (Italian: Lega Nord) party.

In April 2006, after Berlusconi narrowly lost his re-election bid to Romano Prodi, Maroni alleged problems with the election comparable to those in Florida during the 2000 Presidential election. "The level pegging is very similar to what happened in Florida. With one vote more or one vote less, you lose or you win," he said. [2]

In September 2006, Maroni told Vanity Fair that he downloads music illegally and thinks music should be "free and accessible to all". [3] He added that authors should still be able to stop their work from being widely distributed on the Internet. Maroni said his confession was intended to spark a discussion in Parliament about changing Italy's copyright laws, which are among the strictest in Europe. [4]

Maroni was convicted of resistance against a public official during a police raid of his party's building in via Bellerio in Milan, and sentenced to 4 months and 20 days.

Maroni was born in Varese in 1955. In 1979, he received a law degree, with a dissertation in Civil Law, from the University of Milan. He became a lawyer after spending two years working as a Legal Affairs Manager for various companies. [5]

In 1990, he was elected Province Secretary of the Northern League in Varese. He also became a town councilor in Varese that year. Two years later, he was elected Chairman of the Northern League Parliamentary Group. He also entered the party's Federal Council and campaigned heavily for the Northern League prior to Berlusconi's first Cabinet.