Antonio Tajani

Antonio Tajani (born 4 August 1953) is an Italian politician, journalist and former Italian Air Force officer, who has served as Deputy Prime Minister of Italy and Minister of Foreign Affairs since 22 October 2022.

Professional journalist since 1980, he was parliamentary reporter, editor of "Il Settimanale", presenter on Rai of Gr1 and finally head of the Roman editorial staff of Il Giornale newspaper under the direction of Indro Montanelli.

He was a special envoy to Lebanon, the Soviet Union and Somalia.

In addition to Italian he speaks English, French and Spanish.

He is married and has two children.

He was one of the founders of the Forza Italia party in 1994, and then regional coordinator of the party in Lazio from 1994 in 2005.

In Berlusconi's first government (1994–95), he was a spokesman for the Prime Minister.

In 1994 Tajani was elected a Member of the European Parliament (MEP), and reelected in 1999 and 2004.

In 1996 he ran for parliament in the Alatri constituency, but obtained only 45.3% of the votes and was defeated by the representative of the Olive Tree.

He was chairman of the delegation of Forza Italia to the European Parliament from June 1999 until May 2008.

In 2001, Tajani was a candidate for mayor of Rome for the coalition of the House of Freedom, but was defeated by Walter Veltroni after polling 47.8% of votes.

He has consistently advocated the return from exile of the House of Savoy (which was banned by the Italian Constitution until 2002, when the Italian Parliament lifted the ban).

Since 2002 (the year of the Estoril Congress) Tajani has been one of 10 vice-presidents of the European People's Party.

At the 2004 European elections he was elected from a list of Forza Italia in the Central college, receiving 122,000 preferences.

He was admitted to the European People's Party.

Tajani was an MEP for Central Italy with the Forza Italia party from 2004 to 2008 and sat on the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs.

He was a substitute for the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs and a member of the Delegation for relations with Israel.

He was a member of the European Convention, which drafted the text of the European Constitution that never entered into force.

He was a member of the Working Group on the Conference on the Future of Europe.

He was re-elected at the Rome Congress in 2006 and at the Bonn conference in 2009, and then again at the Bucharest Congress in 2012.

On 8 May 2008, he was appointed as Italy's EU Commissioner by newly elected Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, replacing Franco Frattini, who became the new Italian foreign minister.

Tajani received the Commissioner for Transport portfolio.

He was officially approved in his post by the European Parliament on 18 June 2008 with a vote of 507 to 53 with 64 abstentions.

He also served as Vice-President of the European Commission.

In this role, Tajani promoted the rescue plan for Alitalia, through the involvement of private funding in the airline capital.

His plan was not successful and Alitalia is remains in terminal administration only supported by illegal state aid.

Tajani oversaw the drafting of new EU Regulation relating to transport, including clarification of the rights of passengers in air transport.

The aim was for passengers to receive assistance and reimbursement in case of denied boarding, cancellation or delay of the flight.

The proposals were poor, resulting in widespread evasion by the airlines across Europe and abuse by customers.

Both parties have called for reform of the legislation to make it fair and workable.

In 2009 he was reappointed as a member of Italian nationality of the second Barroso Commission, as European Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship; he remained one of the four Vice-Presidents of the Commission.

The confirmation of Tajani followed the decline of the candidacy of Massimo D'Alema as High Representative for Foreign Policy.

For Tajani an alternative foreshadowed would have been a candidacy as president of the Lazio Region.

In October 2012 Antonio Tajani launched his campaign for a new industrial revolution in Europe in order to flip the tendency of the economic crisis and revamp industry.

Michel Barnier was twice Acting Commissioner in his stead, from 19 April 2014 – 25 May 2014 while he was on electoral campaign leave for the 2014 elections to the European Parliament and from 1 July 2014 – 16 July 2014 after he took up his seat.

He served as President of the European Parliament from 2017 to 2019, as European Commissioner from 2008 to 2014, and also as a member of the European Parliament from 1994 to 2008 and again from 2014 to 2022 until he was elected to Italy's Chamber of Deputies.

Following the death of Silvio Berlusconi, on 15 July 2023 Tajani was appointed secretary of Forza Italia, becoming the party's new leader.

Born to a mother from Ferentino, in the province of Frosinone, and a father from Vietri sul Mare, in the province of Salerno, Tajani attended the Liceo Torquato Tasso in Rome and graduated in law from the Sapienza University of Rome; he was a reserve officer of the Italian Air Force.

After attending the high specialization course in air defense at Borgo Piave di Latina, he was air defense controller at the San Giovanni Teatino radar base.

In his youth Tajani was a militant of Fronte Monarchico Giovanile (Youth Monarchist Front), a student organization of the Italian Monarchist Union (UMI).