Roberto Occhiuto (born 13 May 1969), is an Italian

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 ...

, President of

Calabria , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

since 29 October 2021.

Biography

Comunal and regional councilor

Brother of

Mario Occhiuto Mario Occhiuto (born 6 January 1964), is an Italian politician and architect. Occhiuto was born in Cosenza and trained as an architect at the University of Florence The University of Florence (Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Firenze'', ...

, mayor of Cosenza from 2011 to 2021, Occhiuto was elected for the first time as communal councilor in his hometown

Cosenza Cosenza (; local dialect: ''Cusenza'', ) is a city in Calabria, Italy. The city centre has a population of approximately 70,000; the urban area counts more than 200,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of the Province of Cosenza, which has a populati ...

in 1993, holding his seat until 2000. Occhiuto was later elected as regional councilor of

in the

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

and the 2005 regional elections.

Member of the Chamber of Deputies

Occhiuto was elected to the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon R ...

with the Union of the Centre at 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 ...

. Failing re-election in

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

, he took over

Lorenzo Cesa Lorenzo Cesa (born 16 August 1951) is an Italian politician and the current Secretary of the Union of the Centre. Biography Cesa graduated in Political Science from the LUISS University in Rome. He was manager of important companies and bank ...

's seat the following year, after the latter was elected to 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 ...

. After he joined

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 ...

Forza Italia Forza ItaliaThe name is not usually translated into English: ''forza'' is the second-person singular imperative of ''forzare'', in this case translating to "to compel" or "to press", and so means something like "Forward, Italy", "Come on, Ital ...

, Occhiuto was re-elected deputy at the 2018 election and became

group leader at the

after

Mariastella Gelmini Mariastella Gelmini (born 1 July 1973) is an Italian politician and attorney (specialised in administrative law). She served as Italian Minister of Education in the Berlusconi IV Cabinet until 16 November 2011. She served as minister of Regional ...

appointment as Minister of Regional Affairs in the Draghi Cabinet.

2009 provincial election

Occhiuto ran in 2009 as the Union of the Centre candidate for the office of President of the

Province of Cosenza The province of Cosenza ( it, provincia di Cosenza) is a Provinces of Italy, province in the Calabria region of southern Italy. Its capital is the city of Cosenza. It contains 150 ''comuni'', listed at list of communes of the Province of Cosenza ...

but failed the election by ranking third.

2021 regional election

After the sudden death of

Jole Santelli Jole Santelli (28 December 1968 – 15 October 2020) was an Italian politician. A member of Forza Italia (2013), Forza Italia, she was the President of Calabria from 15 February 2020 until her death eight months later. Biography After graduati ...

and the calling for new regional elections, Occhiuto was appointed as the

centre-right Centre-right politics lean to the Right-wing politics, right of the Left–right politics, political spectrum, but are closer to the Centrism, centre. From the 1780s to the 1880s, there was a shift in the Western world of social class structure a ...

candidate for the office of

President of Calabria This is a list of the presidents of Calabria since 1970. Until the entry into force of Constitutional Law 1/1999, the president of Calabria was elected, like the other members of the executive body of the region, by the Regional Council, among ...

Personal life

On 22 September 2022 born Tommaso, his third son, born from the

Messina Messina (, also , ) is a harbour city and the capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy, with a population of more than 219,000 inhabitants in ...

politician . Occhiuto already had two children from a previous marriage.

References

External links

*Files about his parliamentary activities (in Italian)
XVIXVIIXVIII
legislature. {{DEFAULTSORT:Occhiuto, Roberto 1969 births Living people Presidents of Calabria People from Cosenza Politicians of Calabria Christian Democracy (Italy) politicians Italian People's Party (1994) politicians United Christian Democrats politicians Union of the Centre (2002) politicians Forza Italia (2013) politicians 20th-century Italian politicians 21st-century Italian politicians Deputies of Legislature XVI of Italy Deputies of Legislature XVII of Italy Deputies of Legislature XVIII of Italy