Beatrice Lorenzin

Beatrice Lorenzin (born 14 October 1971) is an Italian politician belonging to the Democratic Party, former leader of Popular Alternative, and former Minister of Health from 28 April 2013 to 1 June 2018, in the governments of Enrico Letta, Matteo Renzi and Paolo Gentiloni. In 2018 she became the longest-serving health minister in the history of the Italian Republic.

Beatrice Lorenzin
Minister of Health
In office
28 April 2013 – 1 June 2018
Prime MinisterEnrico Letta
Matteo Renzi
Paolo Gentiloni
Preceded byRenato Balduzzi
Succeeded byGiulia Grillo
Member of the Chamber of Deputies
Assumed office
29 April 2008
ConstituencyLazio 1 (2008–2018)
Modena (2018–present)
Personal details
Born (1971-10-14) 14 October 1971
Rome, Italy
Political partyFI (1996–2009)
PdL (2009–2013)
NCD (2013–2017)
AP (2017–2019)
PD (2019–present)
Spouse(s)Alessandro Picardi
Children2

Early life

Beatrice Lorenzin was born in Rome on 14 October 1971.[1] Her father was Istrian Italian, forced to leave his home during the foibe massacres. After graduating from high school (classical lyceum),[2] she enrolled in the faculty of law, but did not complete her studies.

Political career

Lorenzin works with the local newspaper "Il Giornale di Ostia",[3] before entering politics, joining in 1996 a local section of the youth movement of Forza Italia, the liberal conservative political party led by media magnate Silvio Berlusconi.[4] In October 1997 was elected to the council of Rome's 13th district.[4] In April 1999 she became regional coordinator of the FI's youth movement.[4] In May 2001, she was also elected town councilor of Rome, for the centre-right coalition.[4] In 2005 she was appointed coordinator of the Lazio group of Forza Italia and served in the post until 2006.[5]

In the 2008 general election, Lorenzin was elected for the first time in the Chamber of Deputies, running in the centre-right People of Freedom, the new party led by Berlusconi.[6] During the legislature she was a member of the Constitutional Affairs Commission and became a notable politician of the centre-right coalition.

Minister of Health

She was re-elected deputy in the 2013 general election; the elections resulted in a hung parliament, and no political coalitions had a majority of seats to govern alone.[7][8] So the two main parties, the centre-left Democratic Party, the centre-right People of Freedom, supported by the centrist Civic Choice, established a Grand coalition government, led by the vice secretary of the PD, Enrico Letta.[9]

On 28 April 2013 Lorenzin was appointed Minister of Health in the grand coalition cabinet.[10][11] Lorenzin succeeded Renato Balduzzi, an independent, who served in the technocratic government of Mario Monti.[12]

In May 2013 as Minister of Health she approved the decision to start testing the Stamina therapy, a controversial alternative "medical treatment" invented by Italian former professor of psychology.[13] In that period rose up an intense pressure from the media and an increasingly insistent pro-Stamina street demonstrations;[14] while the Italian and international scientific community contested the government's decision.[15][16] However the tests ended in October 2014.[17]

In November 2013, Lorenzin and other People of Freedom ministers, known as "doves", who were strong supporters of Letta's government, refused to join the new Forza Italia (FI), founded upon the dissolution of the PdL by Berlusconi.[18][19] All five PdL ministers, three under-secretaries, 30 senators and 27 deputies immediately joined a new party called New Centre-Right, led by the Interior Minister Angelino Alfano.[20]

Lorenzin with her French counterpart Agnès Buzyn, in November 2017.

On 13 February 2014, following tensions with his left-wing rival and new Secretary of the Democratic Party, Matteo Renzi, Letta announced he would resign as Prime Minister the following day. On 22 February Renzi was sworn in as Prime Minister and Lorenzin was confirmed as Health Minister.[21]

In May 2014 Lorenzin run for the European Parliament in Central Italy, gained merely 33,437 votes and therefore was not elected.[22]

In June 2016 Lorenzin supported Alfio Marchini (as well supported by Silvio Berlusconi) as a candidate to become Mayor of Rome: in this occasion Lorenzin party had a disastrous electoral result, gathering just 15.458 votes in all Rome area (1,29% of total)[22][23]

On 12 December 2016, when Renzi resigned as Prime Minister after the constitutional referendum, Lorenzin was confirmed as Health Minister by the new Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, member of the same political party of Renzi(PD).[24]

In March 2017 she joined Alfano's new centrist party, Popular Alternative (AP).[25]

On 19 May 2017, the Council of Ministers, on her proposal, approved a decree law containing urgent vaccine prevention measures that reintroduces the mandatory vaccination, bringing the number of mandatory vaccines from 4 to 12 and not allowing those who have not been vaccinated to attend school.[26][27]

In December 2017 Alfano announced that he would not stand in the 2018 general election and Popular Alternative suffered the split of a large centre-right faction, whose members wanted to re-align with the centre-right coalition. The rump of the party continued its alliance with the Democratic Party, by formally entering the centre-left coalition, and, with Alfano's backing, Lorenzin, became AP's de facto leader on 17 December 2017.[28] On 29 December she launched Popular Civic List, a centrist joint list formed by AP, Centrists for Europe, Solidary Democracy and Italy of Values;[29] on the same day Lorenzin was elected leader.[30]

Beatrice Lorenzin run in the general election of 4 March in Modena, a traditionally leftist area in Northern Italy,[31] and has won only thanks to the vote of the Democratic Party, while her own list took only 0.5% of the votes.[32]

In September 2019, Lorenzin joined the Democratic Party.[33]

Controversies

In August 2016 Beatrice Lorenzin announced the celebration of a 'Fertility day' for the following 22 September,[34] but the images chosen for the campaign were perceived as offensive in Italy[35] and abroad.[36] A second pamphlet issued by the Ministry after the first controversy raised a further wave of outrage as perceived as racist.[37][38] The pamphlet was withdrawn and the responsible for the communication of the Ministry, Daniela Rodorigo, was fired in September 2016.[39][40]

References
  1. "XVI Legislatura". Italian Parliament. Retrieved 12 June 2013.
  2. Governo – Beatrice Lorenzin
  3. Lorenzin, da Ostia al ministero della Salute. Il Corriere della Sera 27 Aprile 2016
  4. "I nuovi responsabili della Salute". Medical Network. XIII (2). 2013. Retrieved 12 June 2013.
  5. "Lorenzin Beatrice". Who's who. Archived from the original on 13 February 2012. Retrieved 20 June 2013.
  6. Alex Roe (29 April 2013). "Who Are Italy's New Ministers?". Italy Chronicles. Retrieved 12 June 2013.
  7. "Italian election results: gridlock likely – as it happened". Guardian. 26 February 2013. Retrieved 27 February 2013.
  8. "Italy struggles with 'nightmare' election result". BBC News. 26 February 2013. Retrieved 27 February 2013.
  9. "Deal reached on new Italian government". Al Jazeera English. 27 April 2013. Retrieved 10 January 2014.
  10. "PDL secretary Alfano new deputy PM and Interior minister". AGI. 27 April 2013. Archived from the original on 24 June 2013. Retrieved 12 June 2013.
  11. Paul Virgo (27 April 2013). "Letta hails strong cabinet with 'record' women presence". La Gazzetta Del Mezzogiorno. Rome. ANSA. Retrieved 12 June 2013.
  12. "Govt bios: other ministers". La Gazetta del Mezzogiorno. Rome. ANSA. 16 November 2011. Retrieved 7 September 2013.
  13. "Scientists raise alarm as Italian Government rules on unproven stem cell therapy | Europe's stem cell hub". EuroStemCell. Retrieved 12 January 2014.
  14. Nicholson, Jonathan (17 December 2013). "Pro 'Stamina' stem cell treatment protest in Rome". Demotix.com. Archived from the original on 7 March 2014. Retrieved 12 January 2014.
  15. "Veronesi: sperimentazione su Stamina è un errore, politici trascinati dalla piazza". Corriere.it. Retrieved 12 January 2014.
  16. "Dalla "terapia Di Bella" al "metodo Stamina": un conflitto tra scienza e coscienza". Newsmagazine.it. Archived from the original on 9 January 2014. Retrieved 12 January 2014.
  17. "Stamina, il comitato di esperti boccia il metodo: no alla sperimentazione". Corriere della Sera. 2 October 2014. Retrieved 9 March 2017.
  18. Lorenzin. Berlusconi rimane nostro leader. Schifani Agen Press 17 November 2013
  19. Kevin Lees (18 November 2013). "What the Alfano-Berlusconi split means for Italian politics". Suffragio. Retrieved 20 November 2013.
  20. "Alfano lancia il Nuovo centrodestra: "No a Fi per me scelta dolorosa. No a decadenza Berlusconi"", Il Messaggero (in Italian), 16 November 2013, retrieved 16 November 2013
  21. Andrew Frye; Chiara Vasarri (22 February 2014). "Renzi Sworn in as Italian Premeir [sic] After Toppling Letta". Bloomberg News. Retrieved 14 July 2014.
  24. Gentiloni presenta governo, Padoan confermato all'Economia
  25. Ncd finisce, nasce Alternativa Popolare
  26. "Gentiloni: 'Vaccini obbligatori. Sanzioni per i trasgressori'". Repubblica Tv - la Repubblica.it. 19 May 2017. Retrieved 14 September 2017.
  27. "Vaccini, approvato il decreto sull'obbligo fin da nidi e materne". 19 May 2017. Retrieved 14 September 2017.
  28. Alleanza Popolare, Gentile neo coordinatore nazionale «Beatrice Lorenzin è la nostra leadership di riferimento»
  29. Nasce "Civica popolare", lista centrista alleata col PD: sarà guidata dalla Lorenzin
  30. Nasce 'Civica popolare', guida a Lorenzin
  31. Elezioni, conferme, esclusioni e new entry per ogni partito
  32. Lorenzin elected only thanks to PD votes
  33. Beatrice Lorenzin entrerà nel Partito Democratico
  34. "Fertility Day". Ministero della Salute. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
  35. "Saviano e web contro Fertility day, insulta chi non ha figli". ansa.it. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
  36. "Italy's fertility day posters aren't just sexist – they're echoes of a fascist past". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
  37. "Fertility Day, nuovo opuscolo scatena la bufera sui social. Mentana: "E' da tribunale di Norimberga della pubblicità regresso"". ilFattoquotidiano.it. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
  38. ""Messaggi razzisti". Ritirato l'opuscolo sul Fertility Day". Corriere.it. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
  39. "Fertility day, bufera su opuscolo "razzista". Lorenzin lo ritira e apre indagine". Repubblica.it. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
  40. "Fertility Day, Lorenzin 'licenzia' direttore comunicazione dopo le polemiche per il nuovo opuscolo "razzista"". Il Fatto Quotidiano. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
Political offices
Preceded by
Renato Balduzzi		 Italian Minister of Health
2013–2018		 Succeeded by
Giulia Grillo
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