Maria Rosaria Carfagna | |
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| President ofAction | |
| In office 19 November 2022 – 17 September 2024 | |
| Preceded by | Matteo Richetti |
| Succeeded by | TBD |
| Minister for the South and Territorial Cohesion | |
| In office 13 February 2021 – 22 October 2022 | |
| Prime Minister | Mario Draghi |
| Preceded by | Peppe Provenzano |
| Succeeded by | Raffaele Fitto |
| Minister for Equal Opportunities | |
| In office 8 May 2008 – 16 November 2011 | |
| Prime Minister | Silvio Berlusconi |
| Preceded by | Barbara Pollastrini |
| Succeeded by | Elsa Fornero |
| Member of theChamber of Deputies | |
| Assumed office 28 April 2006 | |
| Constituency | Campania 2 |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1975-12-18)18 December 1975 (age 49) Salerno, Italy |
| Political party | Us Moderates (2024–present) |
| Other political affiliations | FI (2004–2009) PdL (2009–2013) FI (2013–2022) Az (2022–2024) |
| Domestic partner | Alessandro Ruben (2013–present) |
| Children | Vittoria |
| Alma mater | University of Salerno |
Maria Rosaria "Mara"Carfagna (born 18 December 1975) is anItalian politician and formershowgirl and model. After obtaining a degree in law,[1] Carfagna worked for several years on Italian television shows and as a model. She later entered politics and was elected to theChamber of Deputies forForza Italia party in 2006. From 2008 to 2011, she served as Minister for Equal Opportunity inBerlusconi IV Cabinet. In 2018 she was elected vice president of the Chamber of Deputies. In 2021, she became the Minister for the South and territorial cohesion in the cabinet presided byMario Draghi.
Carfagna had been named "the most beautiful minister in the world",[2] and was ranked number one onMaxim's "World's Hottest Politicians".[3][relevant?] She has been for a while the spokeswoman of the parliamentary group of Forza Italia at Chamber of Deputies.
Carfagna was born inSalerno, where she attended theLiceo scientificoGiovanni da Procida.[4] In 2001 she graduated in law from theUniversity of Salerno, with a thesis on information law and broadcasting systems.[4]
After having studied dance and piano, she participated in theMiss Italy contest in 1997, finishing in sixth place.[4] About the experience she later said: "That competition makes you as a woman, it matures you...all that stress, that desire to win, it makes you understand who you are."[5]
Later she started working in television for the companyMediaset, controlled by the family ofSilvio Berlusconi. From 2000 to 2006 she participated as ashowgirl in the television programLa domenica del villaggio ("Sunday in the Village") withDavide Mengacci. In 2006 she led the programPiazza grande ("Main Square") together withGiancarlo Magalli.[6] Carfagna has also been part of the television programsI cervelloni,Vota la voce andDomenica in.[7]
Carfagna has posed forMaxim.[8]
Carfagna entered politics in 2004,[9] and became responsible for the women's movement in the political partyForza Italia.[4][10] In theelections of 2006 she was elected into theChamber of Deputies for Forza Italia, and in the2008 elections – running as the third candidate from The People of Freedom in the district "Campania 2" – she was reelected.[11] When she first entered parliament Berlusconi jokingly commented that Forza Italia practiced the law ofprimae noctis; the right of afeudal lord to take thevirginity of his female subjects.[12] As a deputy she was secretary of the Commission for Constitutional Affairs,[4] and has been described as a diligent, hard-working parliamentarian.[13] On 8 May 2008 she was appointed Minister for Equal Opportunity,[14] in thefourth cabinet ofSilvio Berlusconi, an appointment that was widely publicised internationally, with focus on her special background.[5][15]
In September 2008, Carfagna introduced proposal for a new law makingstreet prostitution a crime, with fines for both clients and prostitutes. The bill was her first major initiative as a minister. She said that at present in Italy, "as in the great majority of Western countries", brothels and the exploitation of prostitutes by pimps were illegal but prostitution as such was not. She described street prostitution as a "shameful phenomenon".[16]
In 2009 she became the first political promoter of the law against stalking offence. This law was finally approved on 23 February 2009, introduced as a package of bills known as theDecreto Maroni. In the same year she signed a campaign against homophobia in Italy, with television spots, images on magazines and wall attachments on cities.[17]
She has participated in many international conferences, met the UN Secretary General, has intervened four times to the General Assembly, where she promoted an international moratorium against FGM. She organized the first international conference on violence against women in the context of the G8, which was held in the city of L'Aquila, in Italy, in July 2009.[18]
In 2010 during political debate for theInternational Women's Day celebration Carfagna made a politicalgaffe, claiming that women gained the right to vote in Italy in 1960 (while they did in 1946) and that the law that rules intrahousehold relationship was reformed in 1970 (while it was in 1975).[19] In the2010 Campania regional election Carfagna had a record result of 55,695 preferences.[20] In 2011, Carfagna proposed a law, which was passed, that provided quotas for women on the boards of companies, which has allowed to involve a larger number of women in the Italian economic system. It approved funding for childcare facilities and in support of motherhood and family that made it possible to increase by a few percentage points the availability of places for working mothers.[21] That same year Carfagna also supported a bill against homophobia, in which homophobia was considered as an aggravating circumstance in bullying events. This bill was then rejected by thePeople of Freedom majority in the Parliament, causing Carfagna's disappointment.[22]
In 2013,Silvio Berlusconi foundedForza Italia, an ideological revival of the eponymous party that existed in the 1994–2009 period.[23] Carfagna joined the party, following Berlusconi. In the same year she began a relationship with ex–deputy Alessandro Ruben.[24] In the2016 Italian local elections, Carfagna was the most votedForza Italia candidate in Naples, with more than 5,500 personal preferences.[25]
In November 2018, on the occasion of theInternational Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, Carfagna launched a campaign called "Non è normale che sia normale" ("It's not normal that it's normal") involving many parliamentarians of all political parties, VIPs and personalities of sport and entertainment.[26]
In August 2019, theCodice Rosso ("Red Code") legislation, proposed by Carfagna, enters into force in Italy to combatviolence against women with more efficient investigations and more severe penalties.[27]
On 13 February 2021, Carfagna returned to a ministerial role in thecabinet ofMario Draghi, asMinister for the South.[28]
Carfagna has been vocal on certain issues, such as the level of crime in her home town of Salerno, after having herself been the victim of burglary on three occasions.[29]
In 2007 Carfagna opposedgay marriage, and said that matrimonial rights should be tied to reproduction.[30] In May 2008 she refused to back agay pride march, arguing that discrimination was no longer a problem for homosexuals in Italy because homophobia was just a thinking offence, a statement that was strongly criticized by gay rights groups.[31] In May 2010, during theQuirinal Palace ceremony on the occasion ofInternational Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, Carfagna publicly apologized for the statements she made two years earlier, saying "she was helped in breaking through the wall of mistrust of which she was at the same time victim and unconscious responsible".[32]
In January 2007, Carfagna was at the center of a controversy that received international attention. On the evening of theTelegatto award show, Berlusconi said about Carfagna: "If I was not already married I would have married her immediately". The comment caused Berlusconi's wife,Veronica Lario, to demand an apology through a national newspaper, something which she also received.[5] Carfagna herself has later described the comment as "gallant and harmless," and said that she did not quite understand Lario's reaction.[33]
On 2 July 2008 the Italian newspaperla Repubblica interviewed the former vice-minister of Foreign Affairs in theBerlusconi II Cabinet and socialist executiveMargherita Boniver, who admitted the existence of some compromising private phone calls about Berlusconi.[34] Few days later, theArgentine journalClarín reported about telephone wiretap records authorized for an anti-corruption investigation. Reporter Julio Algañaraz wrote that Carfagna andSilvio Berlusconi engaged in a telephone conversation with explicit sexual allusions and regarding a meeting about sexual services.[35]
In November 2008 Italian journalistPaolo Guzzanti wrote on his blog about Carfagna, saying: "Is it admissible or ineligible, in a hypothetical democracy, that the head of a government nominate a minister who has the one and only merit of having him personally served, excited and satisfied?",[36] thus highlighting the words spoken by his daughterSabina Guzzanti at "No Cav Day" anti-Berlusconi protest movement in July 2008.[37] Carfagna suedla Repubblica for having reported Sabina Guzzanti's words that alluded to her sexual activity with Berlusconi.[38]
In October 2012 the "Civil Court of Rome" condemnedSabina Guzzanti to compensation of €40,000 to Carfagna.[39][40]
On 25 June 2020, Carfagna, as vice president of the Chamber of Deputies, ordered the forced expulsion of Vittorio Sgarbi who, pronouncing himself on the decree amending the law containing urgent measures concerning criminally relevant wiretapping, pronounced the following: "If a criminal commits a crime is normal, but if a Judge does it, it's an institutional earthquake. After the declarations without precedents against you coming from a Judge of Superior Council, after the unprecedented statements of Palamara against Mr. Salvini, we must open a commission of inquiry against the crime of magistrates who do the opposite of their work, worse than criminals".[41]
She has been engaged since 2013 withAlessandro Ruben, a former deputy ofFuture and Freedom. On 26 October 2020, her first daughter, Vittoria, was born.[42]
1. Mara Carfagna, Italy
Berlusconi IV Cabinet (2008–2011) | ||
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