34 Facts About Nicola Zingaretti

In 2004, Zingaretti became a Member of the European Parliament for the centre-left coalition The Olive Tree.

Nicola Zingaretti is considered a social democrat and one of the most prominent members of the party's left-wing.

Nicola Zingaretti is the brother of the actor Luca Zingaretti, who plays Salvo Montalbano in the Inspector Montalbano television series.

Nicola Zingaretti was born in Rome in 1965, where he grew up in a middle-class family.

Nicola Zingaretti's mother is an Italian Jew, who on 16 October 1943 managed to escape from the Nazis with her mother, while her grandmother Ester Della Torre was deported to Auschwitz concentration camp, where she died after a few days.

Nicola Zingaretti has one sister, Angela, and an older brother, Luca, who has become a well-known actor, famous for playing Salvo Montalbano in the Inspector Montalbano mystery series.

Nicola Zingaretti obtained a certificate as a dental technician in 1984.

Nicola Zingaretti then attended the faculty of Letters at the Sapienza University of Rome, but passed only three exams and never graduated.

Nicola Zingaretti started his political career within the ranks of the Italian Communist Party, where, between 1985 and 1989, he was the City Secretary for Rome.

Nicola Zingaretti later became a member of PCI's heir, the Democratic Party of the Left.

In 1998, at thirty-three years old Nicola Zingaretti joined the Commission to draw up the socialist political platform for the new century, "Global Progress", chaired by Felipe Gonzalez and composed, among others, by Martine Aubry, Shimon Peres and Ricardo Lagos.

Nicola Zingaretti was committed in promoting the peace process between Israel and Palestine, organizing many initiatives to support dialogue between young wings of the Israeli Labor Party and Fatah.

In 2000, Nicola Zingaretti was elected Provincial Secretary of Democrats of the Left for Rome.

Nicola Zingaretti was among the protagonists of a season of important results for the centre-left and for the Democrats of the Left: in 2003, after eight years, the DS became again the largest party in the capital city, defeating the centre-right in the whole province of Rome.

In March 2004, Nicola Zingaretti run in the European election for the list United in the Olive Tree.

Nicola Zingaretti gained more than 213,000 preferences and was elected Member of the European Parliament.

Nicola Zingaretti was a member of the Committee on Development and Committee on International Trade.

On 18 November 2006, Nicola Zingaretti was elected Regional Secretary of the DS for Lazio.

In 2010, Nicola Zingaretti refused to run as centre-left candidate in regional election and for this was heavily criticized by some members of his party, like the Mayor of Florence, Matteo Renzi.

However, objects, slogans and insults were thrown toward the stage, contesting Polverini and her political background in the right-wing and Nicola Zingaretti was hit in the face by a lemon.

Nicola Zingaretti's administration promoted the "ProvinciaWiFi" project, which consisted in the installation in squares, libraries and meeting places of the provincial territory, WiFi devices for free access to the Internet.

Nicola Zingaretti's administration promoted a law which legalized the condom distributors in schools of Rome; these bill created lot criticisms from the Catholic Church.

However, on 24 September 2012, governor Renata Polverini, resigned after a controversy regarding the personal use of public money at the hand of some members of the coalition that supported her, so on 4 October, Nicola Zingaretti retired his candidacy as Mayor, announcing his will to run as President of Lazio.

On 7 December 2012, Nicola Zingaretti resigned as President of the Province of Rome, putting an end to his administration 5 months before the natural deadline, to run in the 2013 regional election.

Nicola Zingaretti promoted a new legislation on historic houses and natural parks and the regional law concerning the cultivation of cannabis for commercial, food and environmental purposes.

On 4 March 2018, Nicola Zingaretti was narrowly re-elected president with 1,018,736 votes, defeating the centre-right candidate Stefano Parisi and the Five Star's Roberta Lombardi.

On 7 July 2018, Nicola Zingaretti announced his intention to run as new party's leader.

Nicola Zingaretti's campaign was based on a social democratic platform, whose aim was to abandon the social liberal and centrist policies promoted by Matteo Renzi and to move the Democratic Party more on the left.

On 1 December 2018, Nicola Zingaretti faced a motion of no confidence proposed by the centre-right coalition, which was rejected with votes 26 against and 22 in favor, with one no-vote from a Forza Italia member and three absents.

Nicola Zingaretti was officially appointed by the National Assembly on 17 March 2019.

On 4 March 2021, after weeks of political infighting within the party, Nicola Zingaretti announced his intention to resign as party secretary.

Nicola Zingaretti is widely considered a social democratic and progressive politician.

Nicola Zingaretti is a strong supporter of European federalism, but he had often criticized austerity measures adopted by European leaders during the Great Recession.

On 7 March 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy, Nicola Zingaretti tested positive for COVID-19 and was isolated along with his family.