Naples
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
) is an Italian politician and journalist.
Biography
De Gregorio began his career as a journalist at the age of 17, in 1977, collaborating until 1980 with the Chronicle Editorial of Naples of
Paese Sera
Paese ( Venetian: ''Paexe'') is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Treviso in the Italian region Veneto, located about northwest of Venice and about west of Treviso. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 19,898 and an area of ...
. Subsequently he worked also for radio and television.
In December 1996 he became the first director of ''L'Avanti!'' by Valter Lavitola (not to be confused with the historic socialist newspaper
Avanti!
''Avanti!'' is a 1972 American/Italian international co-production comedy film produced and directed by Billy Wilder, and starring Jack Lemmon and Juliet Mills. The screenplay by Wilder and I. A. L. Diamond is based on Samuel A. Taylor's play, ...
). He remained the director of the newspaper until 2005.
In 2000, he founded the "Italians in the World" association with the aim of spreading and promoting the image of Italy and Italians in the world, including through its own satellite television channel, Italians in the World Channel.
De Gregorio was also a parliamentary assistant at the European Parliament until 2004. In 2005, after the failure of an agreement with Forza Italia, he ran for regional elections in Campania on the list of Gianfranco Rotondi, the
Christian Democracy for the Autonomies
Christian Democracy for the Autonomies ( it, Democrazia Cristiana per le Autonomie, DCA) was a minor Christian-democratic political party in Italy.
History
DCA was founded on 25 October 2004 by a split from the Union of Christian and Centre Dem ...
.
In 2005, Italians in the World became a political movement and reached an agreement with the
Italy of Values
Italy of Values ( it, Italia dei Valori, IdV) is a populist and anti-corruption political party in Italy. The party was founded in 1998 by former '' Mani pulite'' prosecutor Antonio Di Pietro, who entered politics in 1996 and finally left the p ...
for the 2006 general election. In April 2006 De Gregorio was elected to the Senate of the Republic on the Italy of Values list.
On 7 June he was elected President of the Defense Commission thanks to an agreement with the House of Freedoms reached directly with the mediation of the Senate leader of Forza Italia,
Renato Schifani
Renato Maria Giuseppe Schifani (; born 11 May 1950 .) is an Italian politician who has served as the , in contrast to the candidate of the Union, the ex-partisan Lidia Menapace. The vote of the same De Gregorio was crucial, who by voting himself with the senators of the House of Freedoms had put in crisis the majority of the Union.
On 25 September 2006, after further controversy following his abstention during the vote of an indult order, he announced his definitive exit from IdV and from the centre-left majority, subsequently voting against the Prodi II government's confidence during the crisis of February 2007.
In September 2007 De Gregorio officially returned to the centre-right side, signing a federative pact between his movement and Forza Italia. On 24 January 2008 he voted the distrust against the Prodi II government, contributing to its fall. In 2008, De Gregorio is elected Senator of the Republic on
The 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 ...
list.
Member of the Defense Commission and also president of the Italian Parliamentary Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of NATO, a post from which he will self-suspend on 14 April 2012 in reference to the investigation that sees him investigated on the misappropriation of 20 million euros of funding to the newspaper Avanti!.
Judicial proceedings
Since June 2007 he has been under investigation by the Naples Anti-Mafia Prosecutor for the crimes of laundering and abetting the Camorra. On 25 February 2008 he was entered in the register of suspects of the Public Prosecutor of Rome for the crime of corruption. Both investigations were born in Campania, where the Guardia di Finanza discovered a series of checks signed or filmed by De Gregorio.
On 8 April 2008 he was entered in the register of suspects of the Reggio Calabria district anti-mafia prosecutor's office for external competition in association with mafia-type crimes aimed at recycling. On 8 May 2009, the investigating judge of Reggio Calabria, Arena, issued the decree concerning the case.
On 15 February 2012, De Gregorio was investigated for fraud and false invoicing within the scope of the investigation into loans to the daily newspaper L'Avanti! together with the current director Valter Lavitola. According to the indictment, Lavitola "as the de facto owner and co-director of the International Press" company that manages the newspaper, and De Gregorio "as effective shareholder since 1997 and co-director of the same company, have shown that the publisher of the L'Avanti!, possessed the legal requirements to obtain the contributions provided for by the law for publishing: a total of 23 million and 200 thousand euros received from 1997 to 2009 including false assumptions. On 16 April 2012 a precautionary custody order was issued under house arrest against him by the prosecutor's office of the Republic of Naples, again with reference to the misappropriation of 20 million euros in loans to the daily newspaper L'Avanti!.
De Gregorio was also accused of having been bribed with 3 million euros for his passage to the centre-right in 2007. For this reason, in February 2013,
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 f ...
was investigated for concussion.Berlusconi indagato, De Gregorio: “Mi diede tre milioni per passare con lui” /ref> On 11 March 2013, speaking with journalists about his involvement in the investigation into the alleged sale of the senators, De Gregorio publicly admitted that he took two million euros in black and committed a crime, therefore. On 9 May 2013, the Naples Public Prosecutor asked for Silvio Berlusconi's trial for the alleged sale of the senators. A similar request was made for former Senator Sergio De Gregorio and the former director of L'Avanti! Valter Lavitola. Berlusconi and Lavitola were sentenced on 8 July 2015 to 3 years in prison.