Marini, a trade unionist who ‘kills with a silencer’

Franco Marini, 80, who has the support of Italy's main political blocs in the country's presidential election, is a pipe-smoking veteran trade unionist and former parliamentarian with formidable political skills and working-class roots.

Published: 18 April 2013 10:34 CEST

Marini, a trade unionist who 'kills with a silencer'

File photo of Franco Marini. Photo: Andreas Solaro/AFP

His political mentor once said that Marini "kills with a silencer". Born on April 9th, 1933 in San Pio delle Camere, a small village in the mountainous Abruzzo region, Marini lost his mother when he was just 11. He grew up in near-poverty with six brothers and a workman father.

"The best I could have hoped for was to go to school until I was 14," Marini said in one interview with left-wing weekly L'Espresso.

"But one day the literature teacher came to our house to tell my father I should go to high school. He had the intelligence to listen," he said.

A graduate in law, Marini did his military service in the Alpine military corps – an experience he has defined as "the most important" of his life.

Starting from the 1950s, he was a member of the Christian Democrat party – which dominated Italian politics for decades. He now represents the more Catholic wing of the Italian left.

"The first time I saw the sea was on a school trip with Catholic Action. And the first time I played football was at parish so how could I not be a Christian Democrat?" he once said.

Marini began his career in the trade unions at the age of 20.

He joined the CISL, the Catholic union confederation, where he eventually became secretary general in 1985.

At this time, his mentor Carlo Donat-Cattin, one of the founders of the CISL who served as a government minister in the 1960s and 1970s, said that Marini was a skilled political mover and shaker who "killed with a silencer".

Marini later said he had never understood whether the remark was meant as "a compliment or an insult". He has also been called "a cold-blooded animal" in the Italian press because of his extreme calm under stress.

His political career began relatively late, in 1991, when he became the labour minister in the last government of Giulio Andreotti – the most famous and controversial leader of the Christian Democrats.

In the 1990s, he led the Italian Popular Party. He was elected to the European Parliament in 1999, before joining the centre-left "La Margherita" party in 2001.

He was named speaker of the Senate in 2001 and in 2008, when Romano Prodi's centre-left government fell, he was called on by President Giorgio Napolitano to try and find a consensus between parties on urgent reforms for the country.

He failed to do so and Napolitano had to call early elections, which were won by Silvio Berlusconi.

Marini took part in the creation in 2007 of the Democratic Party, which is now the main centre-left grouping.

He has been married since 1961 with Luisa and the couple have a son.

Marini has said he loves to take a car up from Rome to his native village on weekends, which now has just 450 inhabitants.

"I arrive at around ten in the evening when there are just a few lights on," he said. "I walk for hours, hearing the sound of my footsteps. I re-discover the sights and sounds of my childhood".

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The strike comes after Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama — who is close to Meloni — called a top RAI editor to complain about a television report into Italy’s controversial migration deal with his country.

The Usigrai trade union called the strike from May 6 to May 7 saying talks with management had failed to address their concerns.

It cited numerous issues, including staff shortages and contract issues, but in first place was “the suffocating control over journalistic work, with the attempt to reduce RAI to a megaphone for the government”.

It had already used that phrase to object to what critics say is the increasing influence over RAI by figures close to Prime Minister Meloni, who leads Italy’s most right-wing government since World War II.

However, another union of RAI journalists, Unirai, said they would not join what they called a “political” strike, defending the return to “pluralism” at the broadcaster.

Funded in part by a licence fee and with top managers long chosen by politicians, RAI’s independence has always been an issue of debate.

But the arrival in power of Meloni — leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party, who formed a coalition with Matteo Salvini’s far-right League party and the late Silvio Berlusconi’s right-wing Forza Italia — redoubled concerns.

Tensions erupted at the weekend amid accusations RAI censored a speech by a leading writer criticising Meloni ahead of Liberation Day on April 25, when Italians mark the defeat of Fascism and the Nazis at the end of World War II.

Both RAI’s management and Meloni have denied censorship, and the premier posted the text of the monologue on her social media.

In another twist, Albania’s premier confirmed Thursday he called senior RAI editor Paolo Corsini about an TV report on Sunday into Italy’s plans to build two migration processing centres on Albanian territory.

Rama told La Stampa newspaper the report was “biased” and contained “lies” – adding that he had not raised the issue with Meloni.

The Report programme claimed the costs of migrant centres, which are under construction, were already “out of control” and raised questions about criminals benefiting from the project.