Mario Adinolfi

Mario Adinolfi (born 15 August 1971) is an Italian journalist, politician and poker player. He is famous in Italy for his Catholic beliefs.

Biography

He was born in Rome to Ugo Adinolfi and a woman of Australian descent.

Adinolfi graduated in history. He has been a journalist since the late 1980s, writing for the newspapers Avvenire, Europa, Il Popolo and La Discussione. He also worked for the Radio Vaticana.

He was a journalist for the RAI, where he is the author and presenter of several programs. He had a brief program at MTV Italia, Pugni in Tasca, aired from 2007 to 2008.

He also has worked in radio and has a programme on Radio Maria since February 2015.

He was the founder and is the director of the newspaper La Croce, on 21 October 2014, available online and also briefly in a purchasable edition from 13 January to 16 May 2015.

Political career

Adinolfi started as a Christian Democracy member, but after the party dissolution, he joined the newly created centre-left Italian People's Party, being the youngest member of their constituent assembly in 1993, aged 22 years old. He was elected national president of the Popular Youth of the party in 1994, joining soon the national executive of the PPI. He founded the movement Direct Democracy to run for mayor of Rome in the administrative elections of 13 May 2001. He supported Walter Veltroni in the second round of the elections.

He was a co-founder of the Democratic Party, being a candidate for the party leadership on 18 July 2007. He had 5906 votes, entering by his own right the constituent assembly of the party, which elected him for the commission that wrote their statute. He was also a member of the national direction of the PD.