Paolo Ferrero (born 17 November 1960) is an Italian politician. He is a leading member of the Communist Refoundation Party (''Partito della Rifondazione Comunista''; PRC), and served as Minister of Social Solidarity from 2006 to 2008 as part of the

Prodi II Cabinet The second Prodi government was the cabinet of the government of Italy from 17 May 2006 to 8 May 2008, a total of 722 days, or 1 year, 11 months and 21 days. The 59th cabinet of the Italian Republic, it was the only cabinet of the XV Legislatur ...

Career

Ferrero was born in

Pomaretto Pomaretto (French: Pomaret) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Turin in the Italian region Piedmont, located about 45 km southwest of Turin in the Valle Germanasca. People *Paolo Ferrero Paolo Ferrero (born 17 No ...

, in the

province of Turin The former Province of Turin ( it, Provincia di Torino; pms, Provinsa ëd Turin; french: Province de Turin) was a province in the Piedmont region of Italy. Its capital was the city of Turin. The province existed until 31 December 2014, when it wa ...

. A former

FIAT Fiat Automobiles S.p.A. (, , ; originally FIAT, it, Fabbrica Italiana Automobili di Torino, lit=Italian Automobiles Factory of Turin) is an Italian automobile manufacturer, formerly part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and since 2021 a subsidiary ...

worker, his political commitment began at the age of 17, when he joined

Proletarian Democracy Proletarian Democracy ( it, Democrazia Proletaria, DP) was a far-left political party in Italy. History 1970s DP was founded in 1975 as a joint electoral front of the Proletarian Unity Party (Italy), Proletarian Unity Party (PdUP), Workers Vangua ...

(''Democrazia Proletaria''; DP). Unlike the majority of his party, Ferrero is religious and is a member of the

Waldensian Evangelical Church The Waldensian Evangelical Church (''Chiesa Evangelica Valdese'', CEV) is a Protestant denomination active in Italy and Switzerland that was independent until it united with the Methodist Evangelical Church in Italy in the Union of Methodist and ...

, and was the leader of the youth evangelical Waldensian federation before fully entering politics in 1987. He served as a

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

city councillor from 1993 to 1997, shortly after the DP was absorbed by the PRC. He has two children. Ferrero was first elected as a Member of Parliament in 2006. Prior to being appointed to Prime Minister

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 Prim ...

's Cabinet in 2006, he was responsible for the PRC's social, economic and labour department, with a particular focus on social policy, national civil service, non-EU immigrants and drug-related policies. On 27 July 2008, Ferrero was elected secretary of the PRC, defeating the other major candidate,

Nichi Vendola Nicola "Nichi" Vendola (; born 26 August 1958) is an Italian left-wing politician and LGBT activist who was a Member of the Chamber of Deputies from Apulia from 1992 to 2005 and President of Apulia from 2005 to 2015. He is one of the first o ...

. His term of office came to an end in April 2017.

Sources

A portrait of Paolo Ferrero (Repubblica.it)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferrero, Paolo 1960 births Living people People from the Province of Turin Italian Waldensians Proletarian Democracy politicians Communist Refoundation Party politicians Government ministers of Italy Deputies of Legislature XV of Italy Politicians of Piedmont Christian communists