Guido Crosetto | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Crosetto in 2021 | |
| Minister of Defence | |
| Assumed office 22 October 2022 | |
| Prime Minister | Giorgia Meloni |
| Preceded by | Lorenzo Guerini |
| President ofBrothers of Italy | |
| In office 21 December 2012 – 4 April 2013 | |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Ignazio La Russa |
| Member of theChamber of Deputies | |
| In office 23 March 2018 – 13 March 2019[a] | |
| Succeeded by | Lucrezia Mantovani |
| Constituency | Lombardy[1] |
| In office 30 May 2001 – 14 March 2013 | |
| Constituency | Piedmont |
| Mayor ofMarene | |
| In office 28 May 1990 – 14 June 2004 | |
| Preceded by | Paolo Lampertico |
| Succeeded by | Edoardo Giuseppe Pelissero |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1963-09-19)19 September 1963 (age 61) Cuneo, Italy |
| Political party | DC (1985–1994) FI (1994–2009) PdL (2009–2012) FdI (since 2012) |
| Spouse | Gaia Saponaro |
| Children | 3 |
| Relatives | Giovanni Crosetto (nephew) |
| Profession | Businessman, politician |
Guido Crosetto (born 19 September 1963) is an Italian businessman and politician who has served asMinister of Defence since 22 October 2022 in thegovernment of Prime MinisterGiorgia Meloni.[2][3] Formerly a Christian-democrat, he served as anundersecretary at theMinistry of Defence (2008–2011), Crosetto was among the founders of the national-conservativeBrothers of Italy (FdI) in 2012, of which he served as president from 21 December 2012 to 4 April 2013.[4]
Guido Crosetto comes from a family of entrepreneurs fromCuneo,[5] inPiedmont. After his father's death Crosetto could not finish his studies in economics at theUniversity of Turin. While at the university, he became a member of the youth wing ofChristian Democracy (DC) and in 1988, at age 25, he became the economic advisor to Prime MinisterGiovanni Goria.[6]
From 28 May 1990 to 14 June 2004, Crosetto served as mayor ofMarene, a small village near Cuneo where he lives, for three times.[b][7] In 1999, Crosetto was candidated to the presidency of theProvince of Cuneo, as an independent close to thecentre-right coalition. He reached the ballot against the outgoing candidate of the centre-left, the former Christian-democrat Giovanni Quaglia, but he lost. He held the office of provincial councilor of Cuneo from 1999 to 2009, holding the position of group leader ofForza Italia (FI), thecentre-right political movement member ofEuropean People's Party (EPP) which was founded by the billionaire and media tycoonSilvio Berlusconi and which he joined in 2000. He chaired the conference of Mayors of the Savigliano-Saluzzo-Fossano ASL from 1993 to 1997.[8]
In the2001 Italian general election, he was elected to theChamber of Deputies with Forza Italia for the single-member district ofAlba, gaining 49% of votes.[9] Crosetto was re-elected in the2006 election and in 2008 he joined the Berlusconi's newThe People of Freedom (PdL) party, with which he was elected again to the Chamber. Crosetto served as Undersecretary of State at theItalian Ministry of Defense in Berlusconi'sfourth government from 2008 to 2011.
AfterBerlusconi's resignation in November 2011, Crosetto criticized the formation of the new cabinet led by pro-austerity economistMario Monti. In December 2012, he foundedBrothers of Italy (FdI), anational conservative party in opposition to the PdL and to theMonti government, withGiorgia Meloni andIgnazio La Russa,[10][11] From 20 December 2012 until 4 April 2013, Crosetto served as president of the party.[12]
As a candidate for theSenate of the Republic, Crosetto failed to be elected in the2013 general election, because FdI votes did not exceed the threshold set at 3% by the electoral law known asPorcellum.[13] In the following year, Crosetto ran in the2014 European Parliament election in Italy, but he was not elected because once again FdI votes did not exceed the threshold set at 4% for European elections in Italy.[14] On the same day, Crosetto ran in the2014 Piedmontese regional election as gubernatiorial candidate for FdI and ran alone outside thecentre-right coalition led by Berlusconi's FI. In this election,Matteo Salvini'sLega Nord (LN) was allied with FI against FdI, supportingGilberto Pichetto Fratin's candidacy. In the election, Crosetto arrived at the fourth place, gaining only 5.2% of votes.[15] Following the 2014 election defeats, Crosetto retired from politics in September 2014 and Salvini became closer to Giorgia Meloni's FdI because, without Crosetto, the party moved further to the right-wing.
Crosetto returned to politics when the deputyDaniela Santanchè, a right-wing businesswoman and former member of PdL and FI in Lombardy, joined Meloni's FdI in December 2017. Crosetto and Santanchè in FdI represented thesmall and medium-sized enterprises of Northern Italy in the2018 Italian general election and they became respectively members of the Chamber of Deputies and theSenate of the Republic because the party's electoral support increased, surpassing 4.3% of votes at the national level, for the first time.[16][17] However, Crosetto resigned on 13 March 2019 to continue his business career,[1] and after two days his former seat was assigned to the first candidate on the list of non-elected at the 2018 general election, the businesswoman and FdI memberLucrezia Mantovani.[18] In April and May 2019, as non-candidate spokesman of the party, Crosetto helped Meloni in the campaign for the2019 European Parliament election in Italy and FdI, which became a member ofEuropean Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), increased its electoral support, surpassing 6.4% of national level votes, for the first time.
In September 2014 Guido Crosetto left his political commitment and was appointed President of the Federation of Italian Companies for Aerospace, Defence and Security (AIAD) ofConfindustria and in the same year he becameSenior Advisor toLeonardo S.p.A.
In April 2020 he was appointed Chairman of Orizzonte Sistemi Navali, a company created as ajoint venture betweenFincantieri andLeonardo S.p.A., which operates in thenaval engineering and systems sector, designing and building military naval units, in particularcorvettes,frigates andaircraft carriers.
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In 2022, asnap election was called after the2022 Italian government crisis which brought to the fall of the national unity government ofMario Draghi opposed by FdI,[19][20] in a record-lowvoter turnout election,[21] Brothers of Italy became the largest party in the country, gaining more than 26% of votes and the centre-right coalition won a clear majority in both houses.[22][23] Crosetto did not run in the election, however, he campaigned for FdI and its leader, Meloni. On 22 October 2022, Crosetto was appointedMinister of Defence in the government led by Meloni herself, who became the first woman to serve as Prime Minister of Italy.[24]
As a minister, Crosetto became one of the most vocal supporters ofUkraine against theRussian invasion.[25] In February 2023, he stated that the Ukrainian resistance was "a battle for freedom, a battle for international law, a battle for Europe".[26] Moreover he added that theNATO's military support toVolodymyr Zelenskyy's government prevented the break out ofWorld War III, which would have been inevitable if "Russian tanks reached Kyiv".[27] Due to his statements, Crosetto has often been the target of attacks from members of the Russian government and elite. Former presidentDmitry Medvedev labeled him as "foolish", whileYevgeny Prigozhin, founder of theWagner Group, heavily insulted him.[28] On 15 March, the Italian newspaperIl Foglio reported that the Wagner Group put a 15 millioneuro bounty on Crosetto.[29]
During his ministry, Crosetto often criticized the migration policies promoted by Germany and itschancellorOlaf Scholz.[30][31][32][33]
In May 2024, he criticized Israel's actions during theRafah offensive in theGaza Strip.[34] After a few days, he expressed opposition to the use ofWestern-supplied weapons forattacks inside Russia and stressed the need to "leave open the possibility of negotiating an immediate truce and initiating peace talks in the coming months."[35]
On 10 October 2024, Israeli troops opened fire at threeUNIFIL positions inSouth Lebanon, including UNIFIL's main base atNaqoura, in the area of responsibility of the Italian contingent.[36] The attack damaged communication systems between the base and the UNIFIL command in Naqoura.[37][38] Crosetto described the attack as a "possiblewar crime" and urgently summoned the Israeli ambassador to Italy over the events that occurred at the UNIFIL bases, where Italian personnel operate.[39][40][41] He also contactedIsraeli Defense MinisterYoav Gallant for a discussion and a formal protest asking for guarantees on the safety of Italian personnel and UNIFIL bases.[42][43]
| Election | House | Constituency | Party | Votes | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Chamber of Deputies | Piedmont 2 –Alba | FI | 45,225 |  YElected | |
| 2006 | Chamber of Deputies | Piedmont 1 | FI | –[c] | YElected | |
| 2008 | Chamber of Deputies | Piedmont 1 | PdL | –[c] | YElected | |
| 2013 | Senate of the Republic | Piedmont | FdI | –[c] |  NNot elected | |
| 2014 | European Parliament | North-West Italy | FdI | 29,305 | NNot elected | |
| 2018 | Chamber of Deputies | Lombardy 3 | FdI | –[c] | YElected | |
Media related toGuido Crosetto at Wikimedia Commons| Party political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| New political party | President ofBrothers of Italy 2012–2013 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Minister of Defence 2022–present | Incumbent |
Meloni government (2022–present) | ||
|---|---|---|
Prime Minister |  | |
Deputy Prime Ministers | ||
Former ministers | ||
Acting defense ministers shown initalics |
