Roberto Speranza (born 4 January 1979) is an Italian politician of the
Chamber of Deputies who served as national secretary of
Article One. From 5 September 2019 until 22 October 2022, he has been serving as
Minister of Health A health minister is the member of a country's government typically responsible for protecting and promoting public health and providing welfare and other social security services.
Some governments have separate ministers for mental health.
Coun ...
in the
government
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state.
In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...
of
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 i ...
Giuseppe Conte
Giuseppe Conte (; born 8 August 1964) is an Italian jurist, academic, and politician who served as prime minister of Italy from June 2018 to February 2021. He has been the president of the Five Star Movement (M5S) since August 2021.
Conte ...
and was later confirmed by Prime Minister
Mario Draghi
Mario Draghi (; born 3 September 1947) is an Italian economist, academic, banker and civil servant who served as prime minister of Italy from February 2021 to October 2022. Prior to his appointment as prime minister, he served as President of ...
. During his tenure, he had to face the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
, which deeply affected Italy.
Early life and education
Roberto Speranza was born in
Potenza,
Basilicata, in 1979. During the
2000s, he graduated in
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 ...
at the
Luiss Guido Carli of
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
.
Political career
Early political career
In 2005 Speranza was elected to the national executive of the
Left Youth (SG), a youth wing of 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 ...
(DS), the main social-democratic party in Italy. At the age of 25, Speranza was elected city councilor with the DS in Potenza, a position he held from 2004 to 2009. In March 2007 he was elected national president of the Left Youth. While in October of the same year he was appointed in the national constituent of the
Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to:
*Democratic Party (United States)
Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to:
Active parties Africa
*Botswana Democratic Party
*Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea
*Gabonese Democratic Party
*Demo ...
(PD), the new centre-left party, born from the union between DS and
The Daisy
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
.
In February 2008 Speranza was appointed by PD's 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 serv ...
to the national committee of
Young Democrats, with the task of creating the new youth organization of the Democratic Party. On 9 November 2009 he was elected regional secretary of the PD for
Basilicata.
After supporting
Pier Luigi Bersani in the
2012 primary election for the choice of the centre-left candidate for Prime Minister in the
2013 general election, he was selected by Bersani to coordinate his 2013 electoral campaign. The centre-left alliance
Italy Common Good obtained a clear majority of seats in the
Chamber of Deputies, thanks to a majority bonus that has effectively trebled the number of seats assigned to the winning force, while in the popular vote it narrowly defeated the centre-right alliance of former Prime Minister
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 ...
. Close behind, the new anti-establishment
Five Star Movement of comedian
Beppe Grillo
Giuseppe Piero "Beppe" Grillo (; born 21 July 1948) is an Italian comedian, actor, blogger, and politician.
He has been involved in politics since 2009 as the co-founder (together with Gianroberto Casaleggio) of the Italian Five Star Movement ...
became the third force, clearly ahead of the centrist coalition of outgoing Prime Minister
Mario Monti. In the
Senate, no political group or party won an outright majority, resulting in a
hung parliament
A hung parliament is a term used in legislatures primarily under the Westminster system to describe a situation in which no single political party or pre-existing coalition (also known as an alliance or bloc) has an absolute majority of legisla ...
. Speranza was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in Basilicata's electoral constituency.
On 19 March 2013 Speranza was elected leader of the PD in the Chamber of Deputies. Speranza obtained 200 votes among the democratic deputies, the nil have been about thirty and the white ones 53. He later announced his resignation on 15 April 2015, in disagreement with PD's new leader and Prime Minister
Matteo Renzi
Matteo Renzi (; born 11 January 1975) is an Italian politician who served as prime minister of Italy from 2014 to 2016. He has been a senator for Florence since 2018. Renzi has served as the leader of Italia Viva (IV) since 2019, having bee ...
, after government's decision to put approve with a confidence vote the
new electoral law, the so-called ''Italicum''.
Article One's leader
On 20 February 2017 he left the Democratic Party along with other representatives, including former secretary Pier Luigi Bersani, due to a heated debate with the pro-Renzi majority. Five days later, together with
Arturo Scotto,
Enrico Rossi,
Vasco Errani
Vasco Errani (born 17 May 1955) is an Italian politician. He was a founding member of the Democratic Party (PD), which he has left on 22 February 2017, to join the Democratic and Progressive Movement, a party founded by the former PD left-wing ...
and Pier Luigi Bersani, he created a new party called
Article One – Democratic and Progressive Movement, made up of parliamentarians who had exited from the Democratic Party and the
Italian Left
Italian Left ( it, Sinistra Italiana, SI) is a left-wing political party in Italy. SI was launched in November 2015 as a parliamentary group in the Chamber of Deputies (full name: Italian Left – Left Ecology Freedom), including Left Ecology ...
(SI). In April 2017 he became national coordinator of Article One – MDP.
In the run-up of the
2018 general election, Article One joined a left-wing alliance with SI and other minor leftist parties, named
Free and Equal (LeU), under the leadership of
Pietro Grasso
Pietro Grasso (; born 1 January 1945), also known as Piero Grasso, is an Italian anti-mafia magistrate and politician who served as President of the Senate from 2013 to 2018.
Grasso became the Acting President of Italy on 14 January 2015, upon th ...
, incumbent
President of the Senate and former anti-
mafia
"Mafia" is an informal term that is used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original “Mafia”, the Sicilian Mafia and Italian Mafia. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of d ...
magistrate. In the election, LeU obtained only 3.4% of votes, but Speranza succeeding in being re-elected deputy in the
Tuscany
Tuscany ( ; it, Toscana ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of about 3.8 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence (''Firenze'').
Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, art ...
constituency. On 6 April 2019 Speranza was elected Secretary of Article One.
Minister of Health
In August 2019 tensions grew within the
populist government, leading to the issuing of a motion of no-confidence on Prime Minister
Giuseppe Conte
Giuseppe Conte (; born 8 August 1964) is an Italian jurist, academic, and politician who served as prime minister of Italy from June 2018 to February 2021. He has been the president of the Five Star Movement (M5S) since August 2021.
Conte ...
by the
League
League or The League may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band
* ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football
Sports
* Sports league
* Rugby league, full contact footba ...
. After Conte's resignation, the national board of the PD officially opened to the possibility of forming a new cabinet in a coalition with the M5S, based on pro-Europeanism,
green economy,
sustainable development
Sustainable development is an organizing principle for meeting human development goals while also sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services on which the economy and society depend. The des ...
, fight against
economic inequality
There are wide varieties of economic inequality, most notably income inequality measured using the distribution of income (the amount of money people are paid) and wealth inequality measured using the distribution of wealth (the amount of we ...
and a new immigration policy. The party also accepted that Conte may continue at the head of a new government, and on 29 August President
Sergio Mattarella
Sergio Mattarella (; born 23 July 1941) is an Italian politician, jurist, academic and lawyer who has served as the president of Italy since 2015.
A Christian leftist politician, Mattarella was a leading member of the Christian Democracy par ...
formally invested Conte to do so. Free and Equal decided to support the new government and Speranza was appointed new
Minister of Health A health minister is the member of a country's government typically responsible for protecting and promoting public health and providing welfare and other social security services.
Some governments have separate ministers for mental health.
Coun ...
. He was labeled as the most left-leaning Health Minister in Italian history.
COVID-19 pandemic
In February 2020, Italy became one of the world's main centres for confirmed cases of
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, a respiratory disease caused by the
SARS-CoV-2
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) is a strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019), the respiratory illness responsible for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The virus previously had a ...
virus that originated in
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
. , more than 2,250,000 coronavirus cases and 78,000 deaths were confirmed, affecting mainly
Lombardy
Lombardy ( it, Lombardia, Lombard language, Lombard: ''Lombardia'' or ''Lumbardia' '') is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in the northern-central part of the country and has a population of about 10 ...
,
Emilia-Romagna
egl, Emigliàn (man) egl, Emiglièna (woman) rgn, Rumagnòl (man) rgn, Rumagnòla (woman) it, Emiliano (man) it, Emiliana (woman) or it, Romagnolo (man) it, Romagnola (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title ...
,
Veneto
Veneto (, ; vec, Vèneto ) or Venetia is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about five million, ranking fourth in Italy. The region's capital is Venice while the biggest city is Verona.
Veneto was part of the Roman Empire unt ...
and
Piedmont
it, Piemontese
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 =
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographics1_title1 =
, demographics1_info1 =
, demographics1_title2 ...
.
![2020 coronavirus task force](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/2020_coronavirus_task_force.jpg)
In late January, the government banned all flights from and to China, becoming the first European country to adopt this measure. On 22 February, the
Council of Ministers
A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/ shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or nati ...
announced a bill to contain the COVID-19 outbreak, quarantining more than 50,000 people from 11 different municipalities in
Northern Italy
Northern Italy ( it, Italia settentrionale, it, Nord Italia, label=none, it, Alta Italia, label=none or just it, Nord, label=none) is a geographical and cultural region in the northern part of Italy. It consists of eight administrative regions ...
. Prime Minister Conte stated: "In the outbreak areas, entry and exit will not be provided. Suspension of work activities and sport events has already been ordered in those areas."
Schools were closed in 10 municipalities in Lombardy, one in Veneto and in Emilia-Romagna. In some areas, all public events were cancelled and commercial activities were halted. Regional train services suspended the stops in the most affected areas – with trains not stopping at Codogno, Maleo and Casalpusterlengo stations. Universities in Lombardy suspended all activities from 23 February. After few days, schools and universities closed in the whole country.
On 24 February, Speranza appointed Walter Ricciardi, a member of
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...
's executive committee and former president of
Italian National Institute of Health, as a special adviser for relations between Italy and international health organisations.
On 8 March 2020, Prime Minister Conte extended the quarantine to all of
Lombardy
Lombardy ( it, Lombardia, Lombard language, Lombard: ''Lombardia'' or ''Lumbardia' '') is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in the northern-central part of the country and has a population of about 10 ...
and 14 other northern provinces,
putting more than a quarter of the national population under lockdown. On the following day, he announced in a press conference that all measures previously applied only in the so-called "red zones" had been extended to the whole country, putting ''de facto'' 60 million people in lockdown. He later proceeded to officially sign the executive decree. This measure was described as the largest lockdown in human history.
[To contain coronavirus, Italy will restrict movement across much of its northern region, including the city of Milan]
, ''Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'', Chico Harlan and Stefano Pitrelli, 7 March 2020. Retrieved 8 March 2020.
On 20 March, Minister Speranza ordered tighter regulations on free movement. The new measures banned open-air sports and running, except individually and in close proximity of one's residence. Parks, playgrounds and public green were closed down. Furthermore, movement across the country was further restricted, by banning "any movement towards a residence different from the main one", including holiday homes, during weekends and holidays. While on the following day, Conte announced further restrictions within the nationwide lockdown, by halting all non-essential production, industries and businesses in Italy, following the rise in the number of new cases and deaths in the previous days.
![Emergenza coronavirus - 49574108077](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/Emergenza_coronavirus_-_49574108077.jpg)
On 24 March, in a live-streamed press conference, Prime Minister Conte announced a new decree approved by the Council of Ministers. The decree imposed higher fines for the violation of the restrictive measures, and a regulation of the relationship between government and Parliament during the emergency. It included also the possibility of reducing or suspending public and private transport, and gave the regional governments power to impose additional restrictive regulations in their Regions for a maximum of seven days before being confirmed by national decree.
On 1 April, the government extended the period of lockdown until 13 April. While on 6 April, Conte announced a new economic stimulus plan, consisting of €200 billion of state-guaranteed loans to companies and additional €200 billion of guarantees to support exports. On 10 April, Conte made further announcements extending the lockdown until 3 May, allowing some specific businesses, like
bookstore
Bookselling is the commercial trading of books which is the retail and distribution end of the publishing process. People who engage in bookselling are called booksellers, bookdealers, bookpeople, bookmen, or bookwomen. The founding of librar ...
s and
silviculture
Silviculture is the practice of controlling the growth, composition/structure, and quality of forests to meet values and needs, specifically timber production.
The name comes from the Latin ('forest') and ('growing'). The study of forests and wo ...
activities, to reopen under specific safe measures.
On 26 April, Conte and Speranza announced the so-called "Phase 2", that would start from May 4. Movements across regions were still forbidden, while the ones between municipalities and provinces were allowed only for work and health reasons as well as for visit relatives. Moreover, he allowed the re-opening of closed factories, but schools, bars, restaurants and barbers were still closed. On 18 May, the lockdown officially ended and the government allowed the re-openings of bars, restaurants, barbers and gyms. However, travels across regions were still limited.
On 1 June, the Ministry of Health launched the ''Immuni App'' ("Immune App"), a contact-tracing
app, designed to help Italy manage the so-called "Phase 2" of the coronavirus crisis. The app aimed to notify users at risk of carrying the virus as early as possible, even when they were asymptomatic. These users can then self-isolate to avoid infecting others. Despite harsh criticism from the opposition, which accused the government of establishing an
Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalitari ...
-like
Big Brother, in the first two days the app was downloaded by more than a million people.
On 16 August, after an increasing in the daily number of cases, Minister Speranza closed all the
discos and
night club
A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music.
Nightclubs gener ...
s of the country and imposed to wear a mask outdoors in some areas, considered at risk of crowding.
Personal life
Since 2015, Speranza has been married with Rosangela Cossidente, with whom he has two children, Michele Simon and Emma Iris. He is a fervent supporter of
AS Roma
' (''Rome Sport Association''), commonly referred to as Roma (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Rome, Italy. Founded by a merger in 1927, Roma has participated in the top tier of Italian football for all of its ...
.
Sito Ufficiale di Roberto Speranza
/ref>
Electoral history
References
, -
, -
{{DEFAULTSORT:Speranza, Roberto
1979 births
Living people
People from Potenza
21st-century Italian politicians
Italian Ministers of Health
Democrats of the Left politicians
Democratic Party (Italy) politicians
Article One (political party) politicians
Deputies of Legislature XVII of Italy
Deputies of Legislature XVIII of Italy
Conte II Cabinet
Draghi Cabinet