Mr. Roberto MARONI

Roberto Maroni was born in Varese in 1955. In 1979 he took a degree in law from Milan State University with a dissertation in Civil Law. After the degree, he worked as Legal Affairs Manager with a number of companies and, in 1981, he became an attorney-at-law. Since then, he has been practicing as a lawyer. In 1990 he was appointed Province Secretary of the Lega Nord, and he contributed to its territorial organization. The same year he became a town councilor in Varese. In 1992, he was appointed to the Chamber of Deputies as Chairman of the Lega Nord Parliamentary Group. He entered the Federal Council of the Lega Nord and he kept up on all the most important political events of those years. He also contributed to the success of the Lega Nord in the administrative elections. In 1994, further to the new political elections, he entered the first Berlusconi Cabinet where he took office as Minister of the Interior and Vice-president of the Cabinet. As a protagonist in the new political season, he worked alongside Umberto Bossi in the Lega Nord and took part in the numberless political campaigns subsequent to the turn for self-determination of the Movement. In 1999 he took part in the political initiatives that led to a reconciliation of the Lega Nord with Forza Italia and, finally, to the conclusion of the political agreement among Lega Nord, Forza Italia, Alleanza Nazionale, CCD, and CDU, which subsequently originated the Casa delle Libertà. In 2000, he witnessed the political turning point of the regional elections, where the renewed coalition of the Casa delle Libertà became entrenched in all the northern regions. Following the electoral success, he contributed to a strengthening of the coalition, participating with Roberto Castelli in the work group entrusted with the definition of the electoral program of the Casa delle Libertà for the 2001 political elections. Since June 2001, he has been a member of the second Cabinet headed by Silvio Berlusconi, where he holds the office of Minister of Labour and Social Affairs.