Lamberto Dini (help·info) (born March 1, 1931) is an Italian politician and economist. He was the 75th Prime Minister of Italy from 1995 to 1996 and Foreign Minister from 1996 to 2001.
After studying Economics in his native city of Florence, Dini took up a post at the International Monetary Fund in 1959, where he worked his way up until he served as Executive Director for Italy, Greece, Portugal and Malta between 1976 and 1979. Then, in October 1979, he moved to the Banca d'Italia, where he served as executive until May 1994. When the Governor of the Bank of Italy, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, with whom Dini had developed a rivalry, was called upon to serve as Premier, in April, 1993, Dini was widely tipped to succeed him, but was passed over (allegedly on Ciampi's instigation) in favour of Antonio Fazio.
Dini scored a comeback, though, when Silvio Berlusconi formed the Berlusconi I Cabinet in May 1994, in which Dini served as Treasury Minister. Due to a split between Berlusconi and his coalition partner Umberto Bossi, the Lega Nord leader, Berlusconi's government collapsed in December 1994, after a mere seven months in power. In January 1995, Dini was appointed Prime Minister by President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro. Though he was not noted as a left-winger, Dini, was given the confidence vote of the left-wing parties (apart from the Communist Refoundation) and by Lega Nord, whereas his erstwhile partners in the right-wing government chose to abstain whilst citing benevolence. In theory, his cabinet was a technocratic one.
Vittorio Umberto Antonio Maria Sgarbi (born May 8, 1952 in Ferrara) is an Italian art critic, politician, cultural commentator and TV personality.
He was appointed curator of the Italian Pavilion at the 2011 Venice Biennale. Several times a member of the Italian Parliament and municipal governments like that of Milan, from June 30 2008 is the mayor of the Sicilian town of Salemi.
He has been condemned several times by various Italian courts for libel, malicious slander, absenteeism from workplace and production of false public documents.
Susanna Agnelli, Contessa Rattazzi, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (April 24, 1922 – May 15, 2009) was an Italian politician, businesswoman and writer. She was the only woman to have been Minister of Foreign Affairs in Italy.
Born in Turin, she was the daughter of Edoardo Agnelli and Donna Virginia Bourbon del Monte, a daughter of the Prince di San Faustino and his Kentucky-born wife Jane Campbell. Her brother, Gianni Agnelli, was the head of Fiat until 1996; the Agnelli family is still the controlling shareholders of the company as of 2009. The family also held investments which represented the largest percentage of the Italian stock market.
She was elected to the Italian Parliament in 1976 for the Italian Republican Party (PRI), becoming a senator in 1983. Also for PRI, she was a member of the European Parliament in 1979–1981. She also served as mayor of Monte Argentario in 1974-1984.
In 1945 she married Count Urbano Rattazzi (born 1918) with whom she had six children, the youngest of whom is photographer Priscilla Rattazzi. The marriage was dissolved in 1975. She divided her time between New York City and Italy and she was long a loyal fan of Robert Denning, of Denning & Fourcade, who designed over 15 homes for her in Manhattan, South America and Italy.
Marco Travaglio (Italian pronunciation: [ˈmarko traˈvaʎʎo]; born 13 October 1964) is an Italian investigative journalist, writer and commentator.
Travaglio was born in Turin and earned a degree in history from the University of Turin. In 1992 he began to pursue journalism as a career. He started out writing for Catholic publications such as Il nostro tempo ("Our time"), then worked under the renowned journalist Indro Montanelli for newspapers such as Il Giornale and La Voce and gained the attention of Montanelli himself who once used to say about him: "No, Travaglio does not kill anyone. With a knife. He uses a more refined and not legally punishable weapon: the archives"
Since 14 September 2006, Marco Travaglio has been a regular guest in the TV program AnnoZero, hosted by Michele Santoro (also mentioned by Berlusconi in the Bulgarian Edict).
Recently, Travaglio has contributed as a columnist to prominent national newspapers and magazines, such as La Repubblica, L'Unità (with his old columns "Bananas", "Uliwood Party" and "Zorro") and Micromega. He still contributes to L'espresso with the column "Signorno'". In September 2009 he contributed to the formation of the independent newspaper, called Il Fatto Quotidiano ("The Daily Fact").