Arturo Parisi (born 13 September 1940) is an Italian politician, leader of the Ulivist faction of the Democratic Party and a four-time member of the

Italian Chamber of Deputies The Chamber of Deputies ( it, Camera dei deputati) is the lower house of the bicameral Italian Parliament (the other being the Senate of the Republic). The two houses together form a perfect bicameral system, meaning they perform identical func ...

. He was also minister of defence in the

cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filin ...

of Prime Minister

Romano Prodi Romano Antonio Prodi (; born 9 August 1939) is an Italian politician, economist, academic, senior civil servant, and business executive who served as the tenth president of the European Commission from 1999 to 2004. He served twice as Pr ...

from 2006 to 2008.

Biography

Parisi was born in San Mango Piemonte,

Salerno Salerno (, , ; nap, label= Salernitano, Saliernë, ) is an ancient city and ''comune'' in Campania (southwestern Italy) and is the capital of the namesake province, being the second largest city in the region by number of inhabitants, after ...

Campania (man), it, Campana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demog ...

on 13 September 1940. He moved soon with his family to

Sassari Sassari (, ; sdc, Sàssari ; sc, Tàtari, ) is an Italian city and the second-largest of Sardinia in terms of population with 127,525 inhabitants, and a Functional Urban Area of about 260,000 inhabitants. One of the oldest cities on the island ...

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label= Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, aft ...

. A strong supporter of

, in 1995 he founded, with him, the Olive Tree coalition, and on 30 November 1999 he won a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election ( Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to ...

to replace him in the

. He also succeeded Prodi as president of The Democrats from 1999 to 2002, when the party was dissolved. He then became president of the Federal Assembly of the new

Daisy Daisy, Daisies or DAISY may refer to: Plants * ''Bellis perennis'', the common daisy, lawn daisy or English daisy, a European species Other plants known as daisy * Asteraceae, daisy family ** '' Euryops chrysanthemoides'', African bush daisy ** ' ...

party, and was re-elected to the Chamber in the 2001 general election. After being re-elected Deputy in the 2006 general election, he was appointed Minister of Defence in the

of Prime Minister

, a position he retained until 2008 when the governing Union coalition crumbled and new elections were called. Meanwhile, Parisi joined the new Democratic Party, formed in 2007 from the merger of the Daisy and the

Democrats of the Left The Democrats of the Left ( it, Democratici di Sinistra, DS) was a social-democratic political party in Italy. The DS, successor of the Democratic Party of the Left (PDS) and the Italian Communist Party, was formed in 1998 upon the merger of th ...

, as leader of the Olivists' faction. On 22 April 2008 he was elected deputy for the fourth time. After the resignation of party secretary

Walter Veltroni Walter Veltroni (; born 3 July 1955) is an Italian writer, film director, journalist, and politician, who served as the first leader of the Democratic Party within the centre-left opposition, until his resignation on 17 February 2009. He serve ...

, the Constituent Assembly of the Democratic Party convened on 21 February 2009 to elect a new leader. Parisi, Enrico Morando and Stefano Ceccanti presented a motion asking for the immediate calling of

primary election Primary elections, or direct primary are a voting process by which voters can indicate their preference for their party's candidate, or a candidate in general, in an upcoming general election, local election, or by-election. Depending on the ...

s open to all members of the party. The motion was rejected, so the Assembly itself had to vote for the new secretary. Parisi ran for the post against former deputy secretary Dario Franceschini, but obtained just 92 votes out of 1,258.

References

External links

Personal website
1940 births Living people People from the Province of Salerno Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy politicians 21st-century Italian politicians Italian Ministers of Defence {{italy-politician-stub