Vasco Errani (born 17 May 1955) 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 ...

. 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 minority. He has been

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

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 ...

from 1999 to 2014, being the longest-serving one of all time. Errani is one of the longest-serving governors in the history of the Italian Republic.

Early political career

Errani started his political career in

Ravenna Ravenna ( , , also ; rgn, Ravèna) is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire from 408 until its collapse in 476. It then served as the ca ...

in the late 1970s by joining the

Italian Communist Party The Italian Communist Party ( it, Partito Comunista Italiano, PCI) was a communist political party in Italy. The PCI was founded as ''Communist Party of Italy'' on 21 January 1921 in Livorno by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) ...

(PCI), which evolved as the

Democratic Party of the Left The Democratic Party of the Left ( it, Partito Democratico della Sinistra, PDS) was a democratic socialist and social-democratic political party in Italy. Founded in February 1991 as the post-communist evolution of the Italian Communist Party, t ...

(PDS) in 1991 and 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) in 1998. In this capacity he was municipal councillor in Ravenna from 1983 through 1995, when he was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of

and co-opted in the Regional Government as under-secretary to the Presidency. In 1997 he was appointed regional minister of Tourism.

President of Emilia-Romagna

On 3 March 1999, he was elected President of the Region by the Legislative Assembly.Emilia-Romagna Region – Biography of Vasco Errani, President
/ref> In

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 S ...

, when the first direct election took place, Errani was overwhelmingly elected president with 56.5% of the vote. In 2005 he was re-elected by a landslide 62.7% of the vote against the 35.2% of his closest opponent. In 2010 Errani was elected president for a third consecutive time, but with a slimmer share of 52.1%. Errani was chosen as president of the State–Regions Conference by fellow presidents in 2005, after having been its deputy in 2000–2005. In the 2010 regional elections the centre-left lost its majority in the Conference and Roberto Formigoni, longtime

President of Lombardy The president of Lombardy is the supreme authority of Lombardy, the most populated region of Italy. Election Originally appointed by the Regional Council of Lombardy, since 1995 ''de facto'' and 2000 ''de jure'', the president is elected by pop ...

, claimed the post. However, Errani was re-elected thanks to the decisive support of Lega Nord. On 8 July 2014 Errani resigned as President of Emilia-Romagna after he was investigated for the ''Terremerse'' scandal. Errani was fully cleared from the charges in July 2016.

Special Commissioner for the earthquakes

2012 Emilia earthquakes

In May 2012, two major earthquakes occurred in

, causing 27 deaths and widespread damage. Errani was nominated Special Commissioner for the reconstruction, by 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 i ...

Monti and the chief the

Protezione Civile The (Civil Protection), officially (Civil Protection Department), is the national body in Italy that deals with the prediction, prevention and management of emergency events. It was established in 1992 by , which was updated in 2012, and it is ...

Franco Gabrielli Franco Gabrielli (born 13 February 1960) is an Italian police officer, prefect and civil servant. He has been director of SISDE (the civil intelligence service) and prefect of L'Aquila. In November 2010, he was named chief of the Italian Protez ...

2016 Central Italy earthquakes

On 24 August 2016, an earthquake measuring 6.2 on the

moment magnitude scale The moment magnitude scale (MMS; denoted explicitly with or Mw, and generally implied with use of a single M for magnitude) is a measure of an earthquake's magnitude ("size" or strength) based on its seismic moment. It was defined in a 1979 pape ...

struck

Central Italy Central Italy ( it, Italia centrale or just ) is one of the five official statistical regions of Italy used by the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT), a first-level NUTS region, and a European Parliament constituency. Regions Central I ...

. The

epicentre The epicenter, epicentre () or epicentrum in seismology is the point on the Earth's surface directly above a hypocenter or focus, the point where an earthquake or an underground explosion originates. Surface damage Before the instrumental pe ...

was close to

Accumoli Accumoli is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Rieti in the Italian region Lazio, located about northeast of Rome and about northeast of Rieti. It is located in the natural park known as the " Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga National P ...

, in an area near the borders of the

Umbria it, Umbro (man) it, Umbra (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , ...

Lazio it, Laziale , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

, Abruzzo and Marche regions. The earthquake killed 299 people and left more than 4,500 homeless. On 1 September, 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 ...

appointed Errani as Special Commissioner for reconstruction.

Legal problems

In 2012, Vasco Errani was placed under investigation, because the cooperative "''Terremerse''", owned by his brother, had received a loan of one million Euros, out of public funds controlled by the Regional administration of Emilia-Romagna, for the construction of a factory farm. Errani found himself under investigation for

fraudulent misrepresentation The tort of deceit is a type of legal injury that occurs when a person intentionally and knowingly deceives another person into an action that damages them. Specifically, deceit requires that the tortfeasor * makes a factual representation, * kn ...

, based on suspicion of his having provided misleading information to the investigating magistrate. On 8 November 2012 Errani and his fellow accused were acquitted because the facts were not those alleged by the prosecutor (''"... perché il fatto non sussiste"''). The Bologna public prosecutor's office nevertheless lodged a successful appeal, and 8 July 2014 Errani was sentenced to one year of imprisonment by the Court of Appeal together with regional officials Terzini and Mazzotti, who were sentenced to one year and two months. Following this Errani immediately resigned as president of the region and lodged an appeal against this latest appeal court decision. On 21 June 2016 he was definitively acquitted by the Court of Appeal of

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 1 ...

.Terremerse, Errani assolto nell’appello bis: era accusato di falso ideologico. “Ho pagato un prezzo altissimo”
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Errani, Vasco 1955 births Living people Presidents of Emilia-Romagna People from Massa Lombarda Italian Communist Party politicians 20th-century Italian politicians Democratic Party of the Left politicians Democrats of the Left politicians Democratic Party (Italy) politicians Article One (political party) politicians 21st-century Italian politicians Members of the Legislative Assembly of Emilia-Romagna Heads of government who were later imprisoned