Mario Clemente Mastella (born 5 February 1947) is an Italian politician who has served as the

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...

Benevento Benevento (, , ; la, Beneventum) is a city and '' comune'' of Campania, Italy, capital of the province of Benevento, northeast of Naples. It is situated on a hill above sea level at the confluence of the Calore Irpino (or Beneventano) and the ...

since 20 June 2016. He is the leader of

Union of Democrats for Europe The Union of Democrats for Europe ( it, Unione Democratici per l'Europa, UDEUR), also known as UDEUR Populars (''Popolari UDEUR''), was a minor centrist, Christian-democratic political party in Italy. Led by Clemente Mastella, minister of Labour ...

, a minor centrist Italian party. He was Minister of Labour in the

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 fr ...

government from 10 May 1994 to 17 January 1995 and

Minister of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

in the Prodi government from 17 May 2006 to 17 January 2008. He was also elected to the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the Legislature, legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven Institutions of the European Union, institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and in ...

in June 2009 on the list of

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 ...

of Berlusconi.

Political career

Mastella was born in Ceppaloni, in the

province of Benevento The Province of Benevento ( it, Provincia di Benevento) is a province in the Campania region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Benevento. Geography The province has an area of 2,071 km2, and, , a total population of 279,308. There are 78 ...

. In 1976 he 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 ...

as a member of the

Christian Democracy Christian democracy (sometimes named Centrist democracy) is a political ideology that emerged in 19th-century Europe under the influence of Catholic social teaching and neo-Calvinism. It was conceived as a combination of modern democratic ...

party. After the party's dissolution in 1994, Mastella joined with

Pierferdinando Casini Pier Ferdinando Casini (; born 3 December 1955) is an Italian politician. He served as President of the Chamber of Deputies from 2001 to 2006. Casini is the honorary president of the Centrist Democrat International and the Inter-Parliamentary Un ...

to found a new party, called ''Centro Cristiano Democratico.'' That same year, following the election victory of

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 ...

, he was appointed Minister of Labour. In 1998, after the fall of

Romano Prodi Romano Antonio Prodi (; born 9 August 1939) is an Italian politician, economist, academic, senior civil servant, and business executive who served as the tenth president of the European Commission from 1999 to 2004. He served twice as Pr ...

's first government, Mastella decided to follow

Francesco Cossiga Francesco Maurizio Cossiga (; sc, Frantziscu Maurìtziu Còssiga, ; 1928 – 2010)
. was an Italian pol ...

, lifetime senator and former Italian Republic President. He left his party to found the Christian Democrats for the Republic, then

Democratic Union for the Republic The Democratic Union for the Republic ( it, Unione Democratica per la Repubblica, UDR) was a short-lived Christian-democratic and centrist political party in Italy. It was founded in February 1998 by Francesco Cossiga (former Prime Minister and ...

. This new political party, which supported the new centre-left government led by

Massimo D'Alema Massimo D'Alema (; born 20 April 1949) is an Italian politician and journalist who was the 53rd prime minister of Italy from 1998 to 2000. He was Deputy Prime Minister of Italy and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2006 to 2008. D'Alema also serv ...

, lasted only one year. In 1999, Mastella took over the leadership of UDEUR. In 2005, Mastella took part in the

primary election Primary elections, or direct primary are a voting process by which voters can indicate their preference for their party's candidate, or a candidate in general, in an upcoming general election, local election, or by-election. Depending on the ...

for the leadership of The Union. He obtained 4.6% of the vote. Clemente Mastella and the President of the Sicilian Region Salvatore Cuffaro were subjects of a scandal when it was revealed that they had been the best men of

Francesco Campanella Francesco, the Italian (and original) version of the personal name " Francis", is the most common given name among males in Italy. Notable persons with that name include: People with the given name Francesco * Francesco I (disambiguation), sev ...

, a former member of the

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 ...

who helped the boss Bernardo Provenzano when he was a fugitive from the law. In July 2000, Mastella was a witness at Campanella's wedding.Italian justice minister linked to mafia inquiry
The Guardian, 18 May 2006. In 2016 he became mayor of the city of

Minister of Justice

In 2006, Mastella became minister of Justice in the Prodi government. Mastella promoted a general amnesty in 2006. He also proposed criminalising

Holocaust denial Holocaust denial is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that falsely asserts that the Nazi genocide of Jews, known as the Holocaust, is a myth, fabrication, or exaggeration. Holocaust deniers make one or more of the following false statements: ...

, but he dropped the proposal after opposition by historians and concerns about such law being

unconstitutional Constitutionality is said to be the condition of acting in accordance with an applicable constitution; "Webster On Line" the status of a law, a procedure, or an act's accordance with the laws or set forth in the applicable constitution. When l ...

. As

, Mastella received an "Advice of Judicial Proceedings" in February 2007 from the Naples prosecutors’ office. He is being investigated for

fraudulent In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compens ...

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debto ...

when the Naples football club

S.S.C. Napoli Società Sportiva Calcio Napoli, commonly referred to as Napoli (), is an Italian professional football club based in the city of Naples ( it, Napoli, nap, Napule), Campania that plays in Serie A, the top flight of Italian football. Napoli has ...

collapsed in 2004. Mastella was vice president of the Board of Directors. In September 2007 he has asked the Higher Council of the Magistracy to arrange the transfer of the prosecuting attorney of Catanzaro Luigi De Magistris, who was inquiring on a committee of illegal transactions composed by politicians (including Mastella himself) and magistrates. In May 2007, Mastella started a

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in Reverse ...

of his own
clementemastella.blogspot.com
in retaliation to criticism by the Italian comedian and political activist

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 ...

. Mastella's wife, Sandra Lonardo, is also a UDEUR politician, and she acts as president of the Regional Council of Campania. She has been under house arrest for suspected bribery since 16 January 2008.Domiciliari alla moglie di Mastella
La Repubblica, 16 January 2008. Meanwhile, Clemente Mastella resigned from his position as Justice Minister;
La Repubblica, 16 January 2008. in announcing his resignation, he said that "between the love of my family and power I choose the former" and expressed his desire to be "more free from a political and personal point of view". Prodi rejected the resignation, but on 17 January Mastella said again that he was resigning. Prodi was to temporarily take over his portfolio. In 2017 Mastella was cleared of charges.

2008 Italian political crisis

Despite having earlier said that he would support Prodi's government without participating in it, on 21 January 2008, Mastella said that his party was ending its support, thereby depriving the government of its narrow majority in the Senate. Mastella said that UDEUR wanted an early election and that it would vote against the government if there was a vote of confidence. Mastella's decision occurred a few days after a decision by the Constitutional Court which confirmed that there would be a

referendum A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a Representative democr ...

to modify the electoral system. As stated many times by Mastella, if the referendum was confirmed this would lead directly to the fall of the government and in fact this is what happened. The fall of the government disrupted a pending election-law referendum that, if it had been passed, would have made it harder for small parties like Mastella's to gain seats in parliament. On 6 February 2008, Mastella announced that he would be part of Silvio Berlusconi's Casa delle Libertà.Castelli: «La Lega non vuole Mastella»
Corriere della Sera, 6 February 2008. but on 1 March Berlusconi refused to form a coalition with Mastella, citing too many differences in their political programmes.
La Repubblica, 1 March 2008. After failing to secure a coalition with any other political party, Mastella decided to quit the electoral competition on 7 March, as the Italian electoral system subjects political parties not a part of a coalition to thresholds of 4% and 8% for the Chamber and the Senate, respectively.La resa di Mastella «Non mi presento»
La Repubblica, 7 March 2008.

European Parliament

He was elected to the

in June 2009 on the list of Berlusconi's

party. In July 2009 he was quoted in the Italian because of statements made about the

per diem ''Per diem'' ( Latin for "per day" or "for each day") or daily allowance is a specific amount of money that an organization gives an individual, typically an employee, per day to cover living expenses when travelling on the employer's business. A ' ...

collected at the European Parliament: "An allowance of 290 euro!" - he said in a lift to his assistants - "'It's misery. ... They do not know what you get in the Italian Parliament"."Una miseria questi 290 euro", Mastella protesta per la diaria
La Repubblica, 15 July 2009. In the first months of the current legislature (2009-2014) of the European Parliament he was one of the MEPs less present during voting in plenary meetings.Settima legislatura - Presenze al voto in plenaria
, Delegazione Italiana del gruppo PPE al Parlamento Europeo

Mayor of Benevento

On 20 June 2016, Mastella was elected mayor of

as head of a centre-right coalition. On 3 June 2020, he left Forza Italia to create a regional list named ''Noi Campani'' (We Campanians) in support of centre-left incumbent president

Vincenzo De Luca Vincenzo De Luca (born 8 May 1949) is an Italian politician, member of the Democratic Party, currently serving as President of the Campania region since 18 June 2015. De Luca also served as Mayor of Salerno for more than 17 years, becoming one ...

for his re-election campaign.

References

External links

Official website

Mastella's blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mastella, Clemente 1947 births Living people People from the Province of Benevento Christian Democracy (Italy) politicians 20th-century Italian politicians MEPs for Italy 2009–2014 21st-century Italian politicians Union of Democrats for Europe MEPs Union of Democrats for Europe politicians Christian Democratic Centre politicians Democratic Union for the Republic politicians Italian Ministers of Justice Mayors of Benevento