Sebastiano "Nello" Musumeci (born 21 January 1955) is a right-wing Italian politician. Musumeci is serving as Minister for Civil Protection and Sea Policies since 22 October 2022 in the government of

Giorgia Meloni Giorgia Meloni (; born 15 January 1977) is an Italian politician who has been serving as the Prime Minister of Italy since 22 October 2022, the first woman to hold this position. A member of the Chamber of Deputies since 2006, she has led the ...

. He previously served as

President of Sicily This is the list of all the presidents of Sicily since 1947. There has been 24 elected presidents by Regional Council (1947-2001), and 4 directly elected presidents since 2001. ;Elected by the Regional Council (1947–2001) ;Directly-elected p ...

from 18 November 2017 until 13 October 2022. Moreover, he was a

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

for the Italian seat

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, where he was a member of the Union for a Europe of Nations parliamentary group. He sat on the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

's Committee on Fisheries and its

Committee on Industry, Research and Energy The Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) is a committee of the European Parliament. Its areas of responsibility relate to industry, especially technology-intensive manufacturing, information technology, and telecommunications. It also ...

Biography

Musumeci was born in Militello in Val di Catania,

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

. At the age of fifteen, Musumeci became a member of Giovane Italia, the youth organization of “ Italian Social Movement”, a neo-fascist and post-fascist political party in Italy. After completing his studies in communication sciences Musumeci began working as a banker at the

UniCredit UniCredit S.p.A. is an international banking group headquartered in Milan. It is Italy's only systemically important bank (according to the list provided by the Financial Stability Board in 2022) and the world's 34th largest by assets. It was fo ...

group a global banking and financial services company. Following his stint as a banker he began his career as a journalist. In the 1980s Musumeci also taught at the Istituto Supreriore di Giiornalismo in Catania. Later Musumeci became one of the founders of the Istituto siciliano di Studi Politici ed economici. At the age of twenty he served as a municipal councilor in his home town of Militello in Val di Catania. Soon he became Deputy Mayor of Gravina di Catania and Castel de Judica. In 1990 he was elected Provincial Councilor of Catania and in 1994 as a member of the MSI and not yet forty he became President of the province of Catania. In 1995 Musumeci joined the National Alliance Party and represented the region as a Member of the European Parliament in Brussels. Committed to fighting crime Musumeci became president of the regional anti-mafia commission. Between the years 1995-2001 and again between 2005 and 2006 Musumeci received several threats from the mafia and was forced to live under guard. He is the founder and the current leader of Diventerà Bellissima, a regionalist party of Sicily, after having left National Alliance in 2005, and founded Sicilian Alliance. He ran unsuccessfully for the presidency of the Sicilian Region in 2006 obtaining 5.3% of the votes, and again in 2012 when he came second with 25.7%. He was a substitute for the

Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development The Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (AGRI) is a committee of the European Parliament. Responsibilities of the Committee AGRI is the European Parliament committee responsible for: #The operation and development of the Common Agricul ...

, substitute for the delegation to the EU-

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joint parliamentary committee.

President of Sicily

In November 2017 Musumeci won the Sicilian Regional Election with 39.9% of the vote. The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) candidate Giacarlo Canceller received 36.6% and the center-left candidate Fabrizio Micari representing the Democratic Party received 18.6%. Musumeci also secured a majority in the regional assembly when his center-right coalition which received 36 of 70 seats. Musumeci won the election with the support of Silvio Berlusconi, founder of the centre-right party Forza Italia (FI), who campaigned heavily for him in the runup to the election. Former PM Berlusconi, promised the citizens of Sicily everything from a bridge over the

Strait of Messina The Strait of Messina ( it, Stretto di Messina, Sicilian: Strittu di Missina) is a narrow strait between the eastern tip of Sicily ( Punta del Faro) and the western tip of Calabria ( Punta Pezzo) in Southern Italy. It connects the Tyrrhenian S ...

to a casino in

Taormina Taormina ( , , also , ; scn, Taurmina) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Messina, on the east coast of the island of Sicily, Italy. Taormina has been a tourist destination since the 19th century. Its beaches on ...

. Following Musumeci's victory he claimed to “fight for Italy and show what we can do”. Besides battling crime Musumeci is grappling with pressing regional issues including the

effects of climate change The effects of climate change impact the physical environment, ecosystems and human societies. The environmental effects of climate change are broad and far-reaching. They affect the water cycle, oceans, sea and land ice ( glaciers), sea le ...

as Sicily has been experiencing major weather events that have impacted the coast in Palermo recently. Musumeci will need to decide what to do with the inadequate infrastructure and those left homeless. Also, the

Zafferana Zafferana Etnea (; scn, Zafarana ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Catania in the Italian region Sicily, located about southeast of Palermo and about north of Catania. The municipality of Zafferana Etnea contains ...

area in the vicinity of Mount Etna experienced a moderate earthquake on 26 December 2018 that left a number of people injured. The new president is also addressing the promised bridge across the Messina Strait.

Minister

Musumeci became a member of the Italian Senate in September 2022, and he is serving as Minister for Civil Protection and Sea Policies since 22 October 2022 in the

Meloni Cabinet The Meloni government is the 68th government of the Italian Republic, the first led by the president of Brothers of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, who is also the first woman to hold the office of Prime Minister of Italy. The government was announced on ...

Education

* 1973: Secondary school-leaving certificate in technical subjects * studies in law * Bank teller and

Journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

publicist * 1983: teacher at the Higher Institute of Journalism of Acireale

Career

* 1994-2003: President of the Provincia di Catania * 1994-2009:

* 2002-2004: Regional Coordinator of

Alleanza Nazionale National Alliance ( it, Alleanza Nazionale, AN) was a conservative political party in Italy.Luciano Bardi - Piero Ignazi - Oreste Massari, ''I partiti italiani'', Egea 2007, pp. 151, 173n. It was the successor of the Italian Social Movement (MSI ...

for Sicily * Substitute vice-chairman of Aiccre, "Italian Association of European Municipalities and Regions"See also: 2004 European Parliament election in Italy) * 2011:

Undersecretary Undersecretary (or under secretary) is a title for a person who works for and has a lower rank than a secretary (person in charge). It is used in the executive branch of government, with different meanings in different political systems, and is al ...

of Ministry of Labour and Social Policies * 2012-2017: Member of the

Sicilian Regional Assembly The Sicilian Regional Assembly is the legislative body of Sicily. While it has a long history as an autonomous entity, the modern Region of Sicily was established by Royal Decree on 15 May 1946, before the Italian Republic. The Regional Assembly ...

* 2017-2022:

* Since 2022: Member of the Senate

References

External links

* * * * http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sce/data/fast_access/doc//PLAN_STRAS_NOV%20%2008.pdf {{DEFAULTSORT:Musumeci, Nello 1955 births Living people People from Militello in Val di Catania Italian Social Movement politicians National Alliance (Italy) politicians The Right (Italy) politicians Brothers of Italy politicians National Alliance (Italy) MEPs MEPs for Italy 2004–2009 Presidents of the Province of Catania Meloni Cabinet Government ministers of Italy Italian neo-fascists