Walter Veltroni

Veltroni was born in Rome. His father, Vittorio Veltroni, an eminent RAI manager in the 1950s, died only one year later.[2] His mother, Ivanka Kotnik, was the daughter of Ciril Kotnik, a Slovenian diplomat at the Holy See who helped numerous Jews and anti-fascists to escape Nazi persecution after 1943.[3]

Veltroni joined the Italian Communist Youth Federation (FGCI) at the age of 15, and was elected Rome city councillor in 1976 as member of the Italian Communist Party, serving until 1981. He was then elected to the Italian Chamber of Deputies in 1987. As a member of the Italian Communist Party's national secretariat, in 1988, he played a leading role in the transformation into a social democratic party.

Veltroni, a professional journalist, was editor-in-chief of L'Unità, the newspaper of the Democratic Party of the Left from 1992-1996. He then ran as one of the leading members of The Olive Tree coalition in the 1996 general election. After The Olive Tree's victory, he served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Cultural Assets and Activities from 1996 to 1998, joining 25 other PDS members in cabinet–the first (former) Communists to take part in government since 1947. Also in 1996, he joined the Bilderberg Meeting. In 1998, he resigned, subsequent to his election as National Secretary of the Democrats of the Left (DS). Despite his background as a journalist, he has been involved in controversial episodes related to freedom of expression. For example, in 2001, after the late night show Satyricon aired an interview that discussed indictments on links between the right-wing leader and the mafia, Marco Travaglio reported that Veltroni dispatched a messenger menacing the closure of the show.[4]

Mayor of Rome

In 2001, Veltroni resigned as leader of the party after being elected Mayor of Rome. In May 2006, Veltroni was confirmed Mayor of Rome, easily defeating former Minister of Agriculture Gianni Alemanno, of National Alliance, obtaining an unprecedented 61.4% of the valid votes against the 37.1% achieved by his main opponent. The percentage of votes that supported Veltroni's second term in office was a record in local elections in Rome. Shortly before this confirmation, Veltroni had declared that he was going to leave politics at the end of his second term as Mayor.

In 2005, as mayor of Rome, he met in Washington, during a visit to the United States, then United States Senator (D-IL), Barack Obama,[5] being one of his earliest supporters overseas.[6] He wrote the preface to the Italian edition of The Audacity of Hope in 2007[7] and has been referred to as "Obama's European counterpart".[8]

Veltroni during the electoral campaign.

Veltroni was then widely considered one of the most popular centre left politicians in Italy, and often singled out for the leadership of the Democratic Party, despite his statements that he would not accept such position after his tenure as Mayor would end. In June 2007, DS leader Piero Fassino publicly asked Veltroni to run for the party leadership, offering support from all of his party. Several other Democratic Party leading members publicly stated their support for a possible candidacy of Veltroni. Furthermore, the strongest of his possible contenders, Pier Luigi Bersani, which polls showed as having a 50% support in center-north regions,[9] withdrew to avoid a 'confusing candidacy'.[10] Veltroni officially presented his candidacy for the leadership of the Democratic Party at a rally in Turin on 27 June 2007. At this occasion he introduced the four key issues his programme would address: environment, generational pact, education, and public security.[11]

On 28 September 2014, in Venice, Italy,[20][21][22] the former Mayor of Rome was responsible of marrying George Clooney to Amal Alamuddin.[22][23] The wedding was widely reported in the media.[24]

In 2003, he received an honoris causa degree in Public Services by the John Cabot University of Rome. In 2006, Veltroni received the title of Cavaliere di Gran Croce (Knight of the Grand Cross) from President of the Italian Republic Carlo Azeglio Ciampi. He won the America Award of the Italy-USA Foundation in 2009.[25]

Veltroni has written a number of books on various topics, such as music, social issues, fiction, biographies and politics.

• 1977 – Il PCI e la questione giovanile (The PCI and the Youth Issue)
• 1978 – A dieci anni dal '68. Intervista con Achille Occhetto (Ten Years since '68: Interview with Achille Occhetto)
• 1981 – Il sogno degli anni sessanta (The dream of the Sixties)
• 1982 – Il calcio è una scienza da amare (Football is a science to be loved)
• 1990 – Io e Berlusconi (e la Rai) (Berlusconi and me (and RAI))
• 1992 – I programmi che hanno cambiato l'Italia (Programs that changed Italy)
• 1992 – Il sogno spezzato. Le idee di Robert Kennedy (The broken dream. The ideas of Robert Kennedy)
• 1992 – La sfida interrotta. Le idee di Enrico Berlinguer (The interrupted challenge. The ideas of Enrico Berlinguer)
• 1994 – Certi piccoli amori (Certain small Loves)
• 1995 – La bella politica (interview book) (Politics, the beautiful)
• 1997 – Certi piccoli amori 2 (Certain Small Loves II)
• 1997 – Governare da sinistra (To Govern from the Left)
• 2000 – I care
• 2000 – Forse Dio è malato. Diario di un viaggio africano (Perhaps God is sick: Diary of an African journey)
• 2003 – Il disco del mondo. Vita breve di Luca Flores, musicista (The disk of the world. Short life of Luca Flores, musician)
• 2004 – Senza Patricio (Without Patricio)
• 2006 – La scoperta dell'alba (Discovery of the dawn)
• 2007 – Preface to Barack Obama, L'audacia della speranza (The Audacity of Hope)
• 2009 – Noi ("We")
• 2019 - Assassinio a Villa Borghese ("Murder at Villa Borghese" )

• The Independent, article critics about Veltroni La dolce vita revisited: Rome's new emperor
• (in Italian) Repubblica.it: A brief portrait of Veltroni
• BBC News profile
• CityMayors profile
• World Mayors: Walter Veltroni
• Article about Walter Veltroni from Time magazine