Roberto Formigoni

Roberto Formigoni (born 30 March 1947) is an Italian politician. He was the president of Lombardy from 1995 to 2013. He is the former unofficial political spokesperson of the Communion and Liberation movement. On 21 February 2019, the Supreme Court of Cassation, the highest court in Italy, found him guilty of corruption and sentenced him to a definitive jail term of 5 years and 10 months. As a result, he was detained in the prison of Bollate, near Milan, for a few months in 2019 before getting house arrest. He was released in November 2023.

Career

Born in Lecco in the Lombardy region, Formigoni began his political career early in Christian Democracy through youth movements, such as Gioventù Studentesca and Communion and Liberation, of which he became the unofficial political spokesman. In 1976, he founded the Popular Movement and was elected a deputy in both the European Parliament (with over 450,000 votes) and Italian Parliament. He was also the vice-president of the European Parliament for five years and served as undersecretary of state for the Ministry of the Environment in the Italian government.

In 1990, Formigoni garnered attention when he was involved in a mission to Iraq that successfully concluded with the freeing of some Italian technicians who were hostages of the local government. He later took part in the oil-for-food programme for Iraq, buying 1,000,000 oil barrels (160,000 cubic metres). The move sparked controversy and linked him to alleged bribe scandals. In 1995, he and Rocco Buttiglione founded the United Christian Democrats party. In 1998, he moved to Forza Italia, when Buttiglione briefly decided to support the government of Massimo D'Alema.