Enrico Letta is an Italian politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy from April 2013 to February 2014, leading a grand coalition of centre-left and centre-right parties.
38 Facts About Enrico Letta
2.
Enrico Letta was the leader of the Democratic Party from March 2021 to March 2023.
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In 2007, Enrico Letta was one of the senior founding members of the Democratic Party, and in 2009 was elected as its Deputy Secretary.
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Enrico Letta's government tried to promote economic recovery by securing a funding deal from the European Union to alleviate youth unemployment and abolished the party subsidies, something seen as a watershed moment for Italian politics, which for years had depended upon public funds.
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Enrico Letta faced the early stages of the 2015 European migrant crisis, including the 2013 Lampedusa migrant shipwreck, the deadliest shipwreck in the recent history of the Mediterranean Sea; in response, Enrico Letta implemented Operation Mare Nostrum to patrol the maritime borders and rescue migrants.
6.
Many prominent members of the party asked Enrico Letta to become the new leader; after a few days, Enrico Letta announced that he would return to Italy to accept the candidacy, and he was elected as new secretary by the national assembly on 14 March 2021.
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On 4 October 2021, Enrico Letta was elected to the Chamber of Deputies for the Siena district.
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Enrico Letta was born in Pisa, Tuscany, to Giorgio Enrico Letta, an Abruzzo-born professor of mathematics who taught probability theory at the University of Pisa, member of the Lincean Academy and of the National Academy of the Sciences, and Anna Banchi, born in Sassari and raised in Porto Torres of Tuscan and Sardinian origins.
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Enrico Letta has a degree in political science, which he received from the University of Pisa and subsequently obtained a PhD at the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, a Graduate School with university status.
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From 2001 to 2003, Enrico Letta was professor at the University Carlo Cattaneo near Varese, and then he taught at the Sant'Anna School in Pisa in 2003 and at the HEC Paris in 2004.
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From 1991 to 1995, Enrico Letta was president of the Youth of the European People's Party, the official youth wing of the European People's Party, a political party at European level founded by national-level Christian democratic parties, including the Italian DC; he used his presidency to help strengthen long-term connections among a variety of centrist parties in Europe, and has since remained a convinced supporter of the European Union and European integration.
12.
In 1998, after the fall of Romano Prodi's first government, Enrico Letta was appointed Minister for the Community Policies in cabinet of Massimo D'Alema at the age of 32, becoming the youngest cabinet minister in post-war Italy.
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In 1999, Enrico Letta became Minister of Industry, Commerce and Crafts in the second government of D'Alema; a position that he hold until 2001, serving in the cabinet of Giuliano Amato.
14.
In 2004, Enrico Letta was elected member of the European Parliament, with nearly 179,000 votes, within The Olive Tree list, joining the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe group.
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Enrico Letta served in the committee for relations with the Maghreb countries and the Arab Maghreb Union.
16.
In 2006, Enrico Letta was re-elected to the Chamber of Deputies and was appointed Secretary of the Council of Ministers in the second government of Romano Prodi, thereby succeeding his uncle Gianni Enrico Letta who had held the same position in the outgoing cabinet of Silvio Berlusconi.
17.
In 2007, together with other The Daisy's members, Enrico Letta joined the Democratic Party, the new centre-left party, born from the union between The Daisy and the Democrats of the Left.
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Enrico Letta announced his candidacy in July 2007 through a YouTube video.
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Enrico Letta's candidacy was supported by prominent members of the Italian centre-left, like Francesco Cossiga, Paolo De Castro, Gianni Pittella, Vito De Filippo and many other former members of The Daisy.
20.
In May 2008, after the defeat in the 2008 election, Enrico Letta was appointed Shadow Minister of Labour and Social Policies in the second and last Shadow Cabinet formed in Italy.
21.
In June 2010, Enrico Letta organized a three-day meeting in Verona, during which he met, within its association, entrepreneurs and key leaders of Lega Nord, the largest party in Veneto and eastern Lombardy.
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Enrico Letta was praised both by Roberto Maroni and Umberto Bossi.
23.
On 20 April 2013, when Bersani resigned as Secretary after the candidates for President of the Republic Franco Marini and Romano Prodi were defeated in the presidential election, the whole leadership of the PD, including Deputy Secretary Enrico Letta, resigned their positions.
24.
On 24 April 2013, Enrico Letta was invited to form a government by President Napolitano, following weeks of political deadlock.
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Enrico Letta appointed Angelino Alfano, secretary of the People of Freedom, as his Deputy Prime Minister.
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Enrico Letta built a warm relation with the French President Francois Hollande, with whom he shared a common view on austerity policies, considered outdated to face the economic crisis; Enrico Letta and Hollande often stressed the necessity to increase the public expenditures in investments.
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Enrico Letta advocated for a diplomatic resolution of the crisis promoted by the United Nations.
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Enrico Letta's resignation was accepted by Letta on the following day, who took the ministerial role ad interim.
29.
Minutes after the party backed Renzi's proposal by 136 votes to 16, with two abstentions, Enrico Letta went to the Quirinal Palace, for a bilateral meeting with President Napolitano.
30.
In 2015, Enrico Letta resigned as a member of the Chamber of Deputies, after having voted against the new electoral law proposed by Prime Minister Renzi; at the same time, he announced that he would not renew the PD's membership.
31.
In 2016, Enrico Letta supported the constitutional reform proposed by Renzi to reduce the powers of the Senate.
32.
In March 2019, following the victory of Nicola Zingaretti in the PD leadership election, Enrico Letta announced that he would re-join the party after four years.
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Enrico Letta is a member of many no-profit organizations like the International Gender Champions, the British Council, Re-Imagine Europa, the Trilateral Commission, in which he presided the European Group, the Aspen Institute Italia, in which he served in the Executive Committee, Associazione Italia ASEAN, of which he became chairman and the Institut de Prospective Economique du Monde Mediterraneen.
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Later that month, Enrico Letta forced the two Democratic leaders in Parliament, Graziano Delrio and Andrea Marcucci, to resign and proposed the election of two female leaders.
35.
In July 2021, Enrico Letta announced his intention to run for the Chamber of Deputies in the Siena district, which remained vacant after the resignation of Pier Carlo Padoan.
36.
Enrico Letta, who was trying to form a broad centre-left coalition with the M5S in the following election, was particularly critic toward the possibility of a government crisis.
37.
Enrico Letta was succeeded by Elly Schlein, following the election on 26 February 2023.
38.
Enrico Letta is married to Gianna Fregonara, an Italian journalist, with whom he had three children, Giacomo, Lorenzo and Francesco.