45 Facts About Franco Frattini

Franco Frattini was an Italian politician and magistrate.

Franco Frattini served as the President of the Council of State from January to December 2022.

Franco Frattini attended the "Giulio Cesare" Classical High School in Rome and graduated in law in 1979 at the Sapienza University.

In 1986, Franco Frattini was named member of the Italian Council of State and legal adviser of the Treasury Ministry.

In 1994, Franco Frattini was appointed Secretary General to the Presidency of the Council of Ministers during the first government of Silvio Berlusconi.

However, the centre-left coalition of Romano Prodi won the election and from 1996 to 2001, Franco Frattini served as chairman of the parliamentary committee for the supervision of intelligence.

In 2001, Franco Frattini was a candidate for the Chamber of Deputies in the constituency of Bolzano, supported by House of Freedom.

From 14 November 2002 to 18 November 2004, Franco Frattini served as Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs: the appointment of Franco Frattini followed ten months of interim by Berlusconi himself, after the resignation of the former minister Renato Ruggiero due to his contrasts with the foreign policies of the government.

Franco Frattini authorized the overflight and the use of Italian military bases by the Anglo-American coalition.

Franco Frattini later sent an Italian military and police contingent to Iraq, in what he called a "humanitarian emergency intervention," of about 3,200 men.

The killing of Quattrocchi was reported live on the late night Italian television program Porta a Porta, at the time of which Franco Frattini was a guest in the studio, which raised criticism of Franco Frattini for the lack of tact in not informing the victim's family in advance.

Franco Frattini was later criticized for saying Quattrocchi "died bravely, I would say as a hero".

In 2004, Frattini had to leave office at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which passed to Gianfranco Fini following a government reshuffle.

On 4 November 2004, Franco Frattini was named by Berlusconi to take up the Justice and security portfolio in the European Commission, replacing the controversial Rocco Buttiglione, whose appointment had been rejected by the European Parliament.

Franco Frattini was afforded one of the five seats as vice-president of the European Commission.

In February 2006, during the Danish cartoons row, Franco Frattini defended the media's freedom of speech, though he did express disagreement with subject of the cartoons.

In 2007, Franco Frattini called for a ban on the horror title Rule of Rose, and criticised the EU-endorsed PEGI system for granting the game a 16-years-or-over age rating.

At the start of 2007, Franco Frattini backed an Italian push for EU support of a worldwide ban on the death penalty, while in April 2007, he asked for more powers to be given to Eurojust, advocating the power to initiate prosecutions with a European Public Prosecutor.

In 2008, Franco Frattini joined the newly formed People of Freedom and left on unpaid leave as Commissioner to run for election in Italy.

Franco Frattini did not directly resign from his Commissioner post, to avoid that his successor be appointed by the out-going Prodi II Cabinet.

Franco Frattini only resigned as Commissioner after taking up the position of Foreign Minister in the Berlusconi IV government.

At the 2008 snap election Franco Frattini ran in north-eastern constituency of Friuli-Venezia Giulia and was elected to the Chamber of Deputies.

From 2008 to 2011, Franco Frattini served as foreign minister.

Franco Frattini had openly supported the policy of respingimenti, contrary to the international humanitarian law principle of non-refoulement, describing such policy as a "due application of European rules", and stamping as "unworthy" the 2010 report by Amnesty International that highlighted the critical nature of this policy in light of international and European law.

In September 2010, on the occasion of the second visit of Gaddafi to Rome, Franco Frattini declared "We have blocked the trafficking of illegal immigrants", despite the figures showing the continuation of migratory flows, and despite being mainly people entitled to forms of international protection.

In February 2011, in a set-up changed by the Arab spring uprisings, Franco Frattini claimed to want to "mobilize the Mediterranean countries" and the EU, through the Frontex agency, for patrols and refoulements.

In November 2010, Franco Frattini dubbed the WikiLeaks revelations as the "September 11 of diplomacy" and stated that Julian Assange "wants to destroy the world".

Franco Frattini's weakness was detected by the United States particularly with regard to Italian-Russian relations.

In 2011 Franco Frattini was briefly president of the Alcide De Gasperi Foundation and from 2011 he was president of the Italian Society for International Organization, an emanation of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Franco Frattini was the first politician to hold SIOI chairmanship, until then reserved for diplomats and academics of the highest level.

Franco Frattini later joined the "Institute of Eurasian Studies" and served as its president.

In December 2012, Franco Frattini left the PdL, later defining the leadership of the new party, Forza Italia, as "extremists".

In 2012, Franco Frattini received the honorary citizenship of the city of Tirana.

Franco Frattini did not run for the 2013 Italian general election, while supporting the "Agenda Monti" and Scelta Civica.

Franco Frattini later recovered his position as a member of the judiciary and Chamber President of the Italian Council of State.

Since 2013, Franco Frattini was a consultant to the Serbian government of Aleksandar Vucic for the European integration of Serbia, succeeding Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Alfred Gusenbauer.

Since 2014, Franco Frattini was a member of the high court of sports justice of CONI, a court of last resort of the Italian sports system.

Franco Frattini exercised his function as judge for the Parma case, decreeing in May 2014 that the Emilian soccer team could not play in the Europa League.

Franco Frattini was a candidate to succeed Anders Fogh Rasmussen for the post of NATO's secretary general in October 2014, but the post was given to Jens Stoltenberg.

In 2007, Franco Frattini was censured by the European Parliament for his statements against the freedom of movement of people in the EU.

In March 2009, Franco Frattini condemned the 2009 Durban Review Conference, terming the final document unacceptable, since it included positions that emerged in the 2001 conference, which qualified Zionism as a form of racism.

Franco Frattini later made declarations against multiculturalism, but in favour of the administrative vote for regular migrants, and pleaded for a common European policy on migration.

Franco Frattini reiterated in 2017 that relativism is the third threat to Europe after religious extremism and militant secularism.

Franco Frattini died of cancer on 24 December 2022, at the age of 65.

Franco Frattini received Medaglia Teresiana at University of Pavia in 2008.