- Gianni Letta
Gianni Letta (born
April 15 ,1935 inAvezzano ) is an Italian politician, member of theForza Italia party.After graduating in law, he started working as a journalist for several daily newspapers, as well as
RAI andANSA .He was editor-in-law of "Il Tempo" from 1973 to 1987; that year, he left the newspaper in order to enter into the
Fininvest group owned bySilvio Berlusconi . He hosted a number of TV programs, especially onCanale 5 .After Berlusconi's entree into politics, he became undersecretary of the first government led by Berlusconi in 1994, an office he took again from 2001 to 2006.
Berlusconi nominated him as the
House of Freedoms candidate to succeedCarlo Azeglio Ciampi asPresident of the Italian Republic . In the first ballot held on May 8, he received 369 votes, not enough to be elected. He received the votes from the right-wing coalition but he was soundly refused by the majority of the house, L'Unione, for being considered as thefactotum of Silvio Berlusconi.The elections were won byGiorgio Napolitano , the candidate of L'Unione, on May 10.He is the uncle of
Enrico Letta , a centre-left politician and MEP.
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