Daniela Garnero Santanchè (; born 7 April 1961) is an Italian entrepreneur and a

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

. Between 2010 and 2011 she served as Undersecretary to the Ministry for the Implementation of the Government Program in the

Berlusconi IV Cabinet The fourth Berlusconi government was the 60th government of Italy, in office from 8 May 2008 to 16 November 2011. It was the fourth government led by Silvio Berlusconi, who then became the longest-serving Prime Minister of Italy of the Italian Re ...

. She is currently the regional coordinator of Brothers of Italy in Lombardy.

Biography

Studies and personal life

Christened Daniela Garnero, Santanchè was born in

Cuneo Cuneo (; pms, Coni ; oc, Coni/Couni ; french: Coni ) is a city and ''comune'' in Piedmont, Northern Italy, the capital of the province of Cuneo, the fourth largest of Italy’s provinces by area. It is located at 550 metres (1,804 ft) in ...

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

. She moved to

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

to study

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

, and at 21 married Paolo Santanchè, a plastic surgeon. She was employed by his company in an administrative role. After studying

, in 1983 she founded a company that focused on

marketing Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emph ...

. She later acquired shares of the Billionaire company, along with

Flavio Briatore Flavio Briatore (; born 12 April 1950) is an Italian businessman. He started his career as a restaurant manager and insurance salesman in Italy. Briatore was convicted in Italy on several fraud charges in the 1980s, receiving two prison senten ...

Lele Mora Lele may refer to: Places * Lélé, Cameroon ** Lélé River of the Cameroon *Lele, Nepal * ''Lele'', the Hungarian name for Lelei village, Hodod Commune, Satu Mare County, Romania * Lele, Togo *Lele, an ancient name of Lahaina, Hawaii Languages ...

Paolo Brosio Paolo is both a given name and a surname, the Italian form of the name Paul. Notable people with the name include: People with the given name Paolo Art * Paolo Alboni (1671–1734), Italian painter *Paolo Abbate (1884–1973), Italian-American ...

and

Marcello Lippi Marcello Romeo Lippi (; born 12 April 1948) is an Italian former professional football player and manager, who led the Italian national team to victory in the 2006 FIFA World Cup. He was appointed as Italy head coach in the summer of 2004 and 2 ...

. In 1995, she left her husband, Paolo Santanchè, and began a relationship with Canio Mazzaro, a

pharmaceutical A medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy (pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the medical field and re ...

entrepreneur from

Potenza Potenza (, also , ; , Potentino dialect: ''Putenz'') is a ''comune'' in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata (former Lucania). Capital of the Province of Potenza and the Basilicata region, the city is the highest regional capital and one ...

. Her marriage to Paolo Santanchè was declared void by the Roman Rota. In politics she has continued to use the Santanchè surname, despite an unsuccessful court case by her ex-husband to try to stop her. Her current partner is the journalist Alessandro Sallusti, editor of '' il Giornale'', a daily newspaper owned by

Paolo Berlusconi Paolo Berlusconi (born 6 December 1949) is an Italian businessman. He is the younger brother of the former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. He is the publisher of the newspaper ''Il Giornale'' and the head of the investment group Paolo Be ...

and

Vittorio Feltri Vittorio Feltri ( Bergamo, born 25 June 1943) is an Italian journalist and editor in chief of daily ''Libero''. Biography Feltri was born in Bergamo, Italy. He graduated with a degree in Political Science and then started his career as journa ...

Local politics with National Alliance

In the 1990s, Santanchè became an assistant of Ignazio La Russa, and in 1995 joined the right-wing National Alliance. Santanchè worked as a consultant for the

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

Municipality Board led by Gabriele Albertini, and in June 1999 was elected

councillor A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

of the Council of the

Province of Milan The Province of Milan ( it, Provincia di Milano) was a province in the Lombardy region, Italy. Its capital was the city of Milan. The area of the former province is highly urbanized, with more than 2,000 inhabitants/km2, the third highest populati ...

. In 2001, Santanchè unsuccessfully ran for a seat in 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 funct ...

, but instead took up a seat vacated by her colleague Viviana Beccalossi. From 2003 to June 2004, Santanchè served as

assessor An assessor may be: * ''Assessor'' (fish), a genus of fishes * Assessor (law), the assistant to a judge or magistrate * Assessor (Oxford), a senior officer of the University of Oxford * Assessor (property), an expert who calculates the value of pr ...

of the Municipality of Ragalna, a town in the province of

Catania Catania (, , Sicilian and ) is the second largest municipality in Sicily, after Palermo. Despite its reputation as the second city of the island, Catania is the largest Sicilian conurbation, among the largest in Italy, as evidenced also by ...

, dealing with sports and events.

National politics with National Alliance

Santanchè held the position of chief of the department for equal opportunity for the National Alliance from 2005 to 2007. In 2005, Santanchè was harshly criticised when she showed her middle finger, in a gesture of insult, towards a student protest against the Moratti school reform. In 2005, Santanchè was nominated to hold the discussion of the annual Financial Law, the first woman in Italian history in such a role. In 2006, she was re-elected to the

with National Alliance in the constituency of

. On 22 October 2006, while she was participating in a live show, "Controcorrente", to discuss matters regarding the Islamic veil, Santanchè was criticized by the

Imam Imam (; ar, إمام '; plural: ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a worship leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Islamic worship services, lead prayers, ser ...

Segrate Segrate ( lmo, label=Milanese, Segraa ) is a town and ''comune'' (municipality) located in the Metropolitan City of Milan in the Lombardy region of Northern Italy. An eastern suburb of Milan, in its area lies the airport of Milan Linate, the lake ...

. The

prefect Prefect (from the Latin ''praefectus'', substantive adjectival form of ''praeficere'': "put in front", meaning in charge) is a magisterial title of varying definition, but essentially refers to the leader of an administrative area. A prefect's ...

of Milan stated that her safety was at risk and he would consider the possibility of taking security measures to protect her.

The Right

More than a year later, on 10 November 2007, Daniela Santanchè resigned from the National Alliance party to join

Francesco Storace Francesco Storace (born 25 January 1959 in Cassino, Lazio) is an Italian politician and journalist. Biography He began his career at the right-wing newspaper ''Il Secolo d'Italia'', until entering the ranks of the neo-fascist party Italian Socia ...

's new party The Right. The same day, she was appointed official speaker for the party Santanchè was then the

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

candidate for The Right in the

2008 Italian general election A snap election was held in Italy on 13–14 April 2008. The election came after President Giorgio Napolitano dissolved the Italian Parliament on 6 February 2008, following the defeat of the government of Prime Minister Romano Prodi in a January ...

. Along with

Flavia D'Angeli Flavia (Latin for " blonde") may refer to: Places * Flavia Caesariensis, a 4th-century Roman province in the Diocese of the Britains * Flaviac, a commune in southern France People * Flavia (gens), the Roman clan and imperial dynasty * Flavia (n ...

(

Critical Left Critical Left ( it, Sinistra Critica, SC) was a communist and Trotskyist political party in Italy, affiliated to the Fourth International. History Originally a Trotskyist faction within the Communist Refoundation Party (PRC), it broke ranks on ...

) and Fabiana Stefanoni (

Communist Alternative Party The Communist Alternative Party (''Partito di Alternativa Comunista'', PdAC) is a communist political party in Italy. Its leader and founder is Francesco Ricci. History In April 2006 some members of Communist Project, a trotskyist faction withi ...

), she was the first woman to be a candidate for Italian prime minister. The Right did not acquire the necessary share of votes (4% for the Chamber, 8% for the Senate) to enter the Parliament and Daniela Santanchè therefore ended her parliamentary mandate. After seven years as deputy, she received

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists o ...

65,534 as termination indemnities (''trattamento di fine rapporto)'', and €3,605 monthly as lifetime allowance. She declared that she will donate this to charity.

Movement for Italy

On 28 September 2008, after arguing with party secretary

, Santanchè left the party. Shortly afterwards, with Diego Zarneri and other former ''La Destra'' politicians, she founded the Movement for Italy (MpI) political movement, in order to come closer to

Silvio Berlusconi Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; born 29 September 1936) is an Italian media tycoon and politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy in four governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies ...

People of Freedom The People of Freedom ( it, Il Popolo della Libertà, PdL) was a centre-right political party in Italy. The PdL, launched by Silvio Berlusconi on 18 November 2007, was initially a federation of political parties, notably including Forza Italia a ...

. On 20 September 2009, she appeared with Diego Zarneri at the

Eid ul-Fitr , nickname = Festival of Breaking the Fast, Lesser Eid, Sweet Eid, Sugar Feast , observedby = Muslims , type = Islamic , longtype = Islamic , significance = Commemoration to mark the end of fasting in Ramadan , dat ...

religious holiday in Milan. According to Muslims, Santanchè tried to un

veil A veil is an article of clothing or hanging cloth that is intended to cover some part of the head or face, or an object of some significance. Veiling has a long history in European, Asian, and African societies. The practice has been prominent ...

some women, causing a reaction by local men. In her version, Santanchè says she asked the police to apply Italian law, which bans appearing in public with a veil, and that she made no contact with a Muslim woman. Afterwards, she declared she had been assaulted and beaten, but this was denied by Muslim eyewitnesses. At the hospital, she was examined and found to have chest bruises, that would take 20 days to heal. On 25 September on the il Fatto Quotidiano newspaper, a short video shot by peacereporter seems to disprove any alleged assault on Santanchè. In the video, Santanchè is shown trying to cross the police barrier, while no assault on her is shown. Santanchè's lawyers dismissed the video as a fabrication, releasing a copy of the reports by the hospital and by the police.

Diploma scandal of 2011

On 22 March 2011, the magazine '' Oggi'' published an articleLo scoop di “Oggi”: Daniela Santanché e il suo (falso) master alla Bocconi. Tutti gli aggiornamenti , Focus
. Oggi.it. Retrieved 2013-08-24. stating that although on her resume Santanchè claimed to have an MBA from the Bocconi University, the university itself had no record of having awarded her any such degree. Santanchè did not resign, claimed she was telling the truth and threatened to sue the magazine for libel. No evidence of her degree has turned up, although it appears that she did attend another, unspecified, course at the university.

Brothers of Italy

On 3 December 2017, Santanchè joined Fratelli d'Italia and attended the party congress in Trieste. During the 2018 General Election she was elected as a Senator in the Cremona constituency, and was re-elected in 2022 with 52.17% of the votes.

References

External links

'Mud-slinging divas battle over mantle of Mussolini', ''The Observer'', 30 March 2008
{{DEFAULTSORT:Santanche, Daniela 1961 births Living people People from Cuneo National Alliance (Italy) politicians The Right (Italy) politicians The People of Freedom politicians Forza Italia (2013) politicians Brothers of Italy politicians Deputies of Legislature XIV of Italy Deputies of Legislature XV of Italy Deputies of Legislature XVII of Italy Senators of Legislature XVIII of Italy Politicians of Piedmont Women government ministers of Italy Critics of Islam 21st-century Italian women Meloni Cabinet Government ministers of Italy Women members of the Chamber of Deputies (Italy) Women members of the Senate of the Republic (Italy)