Gianfranco Fini
From Freepedia
Gianfranco Fini (born January 3, 1952 in Bologna) is an Italian politician, currently Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister in the Government led by Silvio Berlusconi. He ran for mayor of Rome in 1993 but was defeated by Francesco Rutelli. He is the leader of the National Alliance (Alleanza Nazionale), a right-wing party.
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Early years
National Secretary of Fronte della Gioventù (Youth Front) in 1977, he was first elected Deputy on 26 June 1983.
From December 1987 to January 1990 he was National Secretary of MSI-DN, a post he held again from July 1991 on.
He drew that party away from its neo-fascist ideology and more toward mainstream conservative right-wing parties in Italy. Some members left the party, but most stayed, and in 1994, Fini merged his party with some conservative elements of the Christian Democrats to form the National Alliance.
At the Congress of Fiuggi (25-29 January 1995) he was elected President of National Alliance.
Coalition
Fini and his party have been part of Berlusconi's right-wing House of Freedoms coalition which won the 1994 and 2001 parliamentary election, with Fini focusing on a campaign against illegal immigration. Fini became deputy prime minister in 2001 and foreign minister in November 2004. From February of 2002 represents the Italian Government at the European Convention.
Controversial moves
Image:Gianfranco Fini meets Ariel Sharon.jpg While visiting Israel in 2003, Fini declared fascism "an absolute evil." This led Benito Mussolini's granddaughter, Alessandra, a longtime member of the MSI/AN, to leave the party and found her own party, Libertà di Azione (later renamed Azione Sociale), which would ally itself with other neo-fascist parties in Alternativa Sociale.
In the campaign for the referenda of June 2005, concerning the Italian law on artificial insemination techniques, considered by some the most restrictive in the world except for Costa Rica's, Fini surprisingly declared he would vote "Yes" to three of four referenda, splitting his own party, which is more aligned with the catholic church.
