Gianni Letta
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gianni Letta (born April 15, 1935 in Avezzano) is an Italian politician, member of the Forza Italia party.
After graduating in law, he started working as a journalist for several daily newspapers, as well as RAI and ANSA.
He was editor-in-law of Il Tempo from 1973 to 1987; that year, he left the newspaper in order to enter into the Fininvest group owned by Silvio Berlusconi. He hosted a number of TV programs, especially on Canale 5.
After Berlusconi's entree into politics, he became undersecretary of the first government led by Berlusconi in 1994, an office he took again from 2001 to 2006.
Berlusconi nominated him as the House of Freedoms candidate to succeed Carlo Azeglio Ciampi as President of the Italian Republic. In the first ballot held on May 8, he received 369 votes, not enough to be elected. He received the votes from the right-wing coalition but he was soundly refused by the majority of the house, L'Unione, for being considered as the factotum of Silvio Berlusconi. The elections were won by Giorgio Napolitano, the candidate of L'Unione, on May 10.
He is the uncle of Enrico Letta, a centre-left politician and MEP.
