Carlo Calenda

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Carlo Calenda

MEP
Carlo Calenda crop.jpeg
Minister of Economic Development
In office
10 May 2016 – 1 June 2018
Prime MinisterMatteo Renzi
Paolo Gentiloni
Preceded byFederica Guidi
Succeeded byLuigi Di Maio
Leader of Action
Assumed office
21 November 2019
Preceded byPosition established
Member of the European Parliament
Assumed office
2 July 2019
ConstituencyNorth-East Italy
Italian Ambassador to the European Union
In office
21 March 2016 – 10 May 2016
Prime MinisterMatteo Renzi
Preceded byStefano Sannino
Succeeded byMaurizio Massari
Personal details
Born (1973-04-09) 9 April 1973 (age 48)
Rome, Italy
Political partyCivic Choice (2013–2015)
Independent (2015–2018)
Democratic Party (2018–2019)
Action (2019–)
Spouse(s)Violante Guidotti Bentivoglio
Children4
EducationSapienza University
Signature

Carlo Calenda (born 9 April 1973) is an Italian manager and politician. On 10 May 2016, he was appointed Minister of Economic Development in the government of Matteo Renzi and continued in that role in the government of Renzi's successor, Paolo Gentiloni. From 21 March to 10 May 2016, he served as Italy's Permanent Representative to the European Union.[1] He has been serving as a Member of the European Parliament since July 2019.

Early life and business career[]

Carlo Calenda was born in Rome in 1973. He is the son of Fabio Calenda, a journalist, and Cristina Comencini, a film director and screenwriter, and the grandson of Luigi Comencini, a popular director of Italian comedy movies, and Giulia Grifeo di Partanna, descended from an ancient aristocratic family from Sicily.[2]

In 1984, at the age of eleven years, he played the lead role in the Italian television miniseries Cuore, directed by his grandfather, Luigi Comencini;[3] his voice was dubbed by .[4] During his adolescence, his aristocratic background did not prevent him from joining the Italian Communist Youth Federation (FGCI).[5]

He graduated in law at the La Sapienza University in Rome, after which he worked in various finance companies until 1998, when he became a manager of Ferrari under the presidency of Luca Cordero di Montezemolo. In the early 2000s he became the marketing manager of Sky Italia. From 2004 to 2008 Calenda served as assistant to the then president of Confindustria, Luca Cordero di Montezemolo.[6]

Political career[]

In 2009 Calenda was appointed political coordinator of Future Italy, a liberal centrist think tank founded by Montezemolo.[7]

In 2012 he joined Civic Choice, the liberal political party of incumbent Prime Minister Mario Monti. Calenda ran in the 2013 general election, but failed to win a seat in the Chamber of Deputies.[8]

On 2 May 2013 he was appointed Deputy Minister of Economic Development in the government of Enrico Letta,[9] and was later confirmed in that post in the cabinet of Letta's successor, Matteo Renzi.[10]

On 20 January 2016, Renzi appointed him Italy's Permanent Representative to the European Union, an office he took up on March 21 that year.[11] This appointment was criticised by both the opposition and Italian diplomats, because the office of Permanent Representative had always been held by a diplomat and not by a politician such as Calenda.[12][13]

Minister of Economic Development[]

On 10 May 2016, following the resignation of the incumbent minister Federica Guidi, Calenda was appointed Minister of Economic Development.[14] Calenda continued as minister in the government of Paolo Gentiloni, who succeeded Renzi when he resigned on 12 December 2016 as Prime Minister following the constitutional referendum.[15]

Carlo Calenda in February 2018

Before his nomination, Calenda was widely seen as a strong supporter of free market and globalization, moreover he often expressed his positive view about TTIP, a proposed trade agreement between the European Union and the United States, with the aim of promoting trade and multilateral economic growth.[16][17] However, his tenure as minister was characterized by his opposition to foreign multinational corporations and his defence of Italian workers. His policies became particularly evident in January 2018 when the Brazilian company Embraco, a subsidiary of the US multinational Whirlpool, announced an offshoring to shift its production from Turin to Slovakia.[18] After weeks of tensions and protests, the Italian government and Embraco reached a deal to postpone the relocation and suspend the layoffs, permitting to reach a better agreement for workers during the following year.[19][20]

On 6 March 2018, two days after the 2018 general election, which saw the defeat of Renzi's Democratic Party and a strong showing of populist forces like the Five Star Movement and the Lega, Calenda announced he would join the Democrats, stating that "we must not form a new party but work to uplift the one that already exists."[21] He also added that the PD must be reorganized as a real leftist force and must not support any cabinet led by populist parties.[22][23]

Especially after his enter in the PD, Calenda became increasingly critic toward Third Way policies promoted by Bill Clinton in the United States, Tony Blair in the United Kingdom and more recently by Renzi in Italy, which according to him were made only by optimism and slogans and had mainly contributed to the defeats of the centre-left in the Western world.[24] He also expressed his pessimistic view about globalization and centre-left politics, which according to him, have failed in protecting workers from offshoring and unemployment.[25] According to him, the new left-wing must "defend the workplace and not the work itself, and must offer protection to workers."[26] Due to his statements, Calenda was labeled by many political commentators as a workerist.[27]

In April 2018, workers of the Italian section of Alcoa, an American industrial corporation, get a 5% of shares and a place on the board of the new company created by Swiss-based Sider Alloys' acquisition of the Sardinian aluminium mine. Calenda stated that "it will be the first case in which workers participate in the management of a company and they have fully deserved it".[28]

Member of the European Parliament, 2019–present[]

Carlo Calenda in 2019

In January 2019, Calenda launched his political manifesto Siamo Europei ("We Are Europeans") with the aim of creating a joint list composed by PD and other progressive and Europeanist parties for the May's European election,[29] in which he was elected in the North-East constituency, receiving more than 270,000 votes.[30]

In parliament, Calenda has since been serving on the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE). In addition to his committee assignments, he is a member of the parliament’s delegation for relations with Canada.

In August 2019, tensions grew within the populist majority, due to Matteo Salvini's motion of no-confidence on Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.[31] On 20 August, Conte resigned his post to President Mattarella and on the following day, the national direction of the PD officially opened to a cabinet with the Five Star Movement (M5S),[32] based on pro-Europeanism, green economy, sustainable development, fight against economic inequality and a new immigration policy.[33] On 28 August, PD's leader Nicola Zingaretti announced at the Quirinal Palace his favorable position on keeping Giuseppe Conte at the head of the new government,[34] and on same day, Mattarella summoned Conte to the Quirinal Palace for the 29 August to give him the task of forming a new cabinet.[35] Calenda strongly opposed the new government, stating the PD had renounced to represent the reformists,[36] so it became necessary to found a "liberal-progressive" movement.[37] Calenda exited from the PD and on 5 September 2019, while the new government sown in, he officially announced the foundation of his new movement.[38] On 21 November 2019, the new party, which was named Action (Azione), was officially founded.[39]

On 18 October 2020, Calenda announced his intention to run as Mayor of Rome in the next municipal election in 2021.[40]

Electoral history[]

Election House Constituency Party Votes Result
2019 European Parliament North-East Italy PD 279,783 checkY Elected

Authored books[]

  • Orizzonti selvaggi. Milan: Feltrinelli. 2018. ISBN 978-88-58-83381-0.
  • I mostri. Come uscire dal labirinto che abbiamo costruito. Milan: Feltrinelli. 2020. ISBN 978-88-07-17380-6.

References[]

  1. ^ Nomina di Carlo Calenda a Rappresentante Permanente d’Italia presso l’Unione Europea
  2. ^ Chi è Carlo Calenda?
  3. ^ Ricordate il piccolo protagonista di «Cuore»? Ecco il ministro Calenda quando aveva 10 anni
  4. ^ "IL MONDO DEI DOPPIATORI - ZONA CINEMA - SCENEGGIATI e MINISERIE TV: "Cuore" (1984)".
  5. ^ Chi è Carlo Calenda, il nuovo ministro dello Sviluppo Economico amico di Montezemolo
  6. ^ "Biografia di Carlo Calenda". Archived from the original on 2016-01-26. Retrieved 2017-12-18.
  7. ^ "Noi alternativi ai democratici, li batteremo
  8. ^ Candidati di Scelta Civica alla Camera dei Deputati
  9. ^ Consiglio dei Ministri
  10. ^ Che tristezza quella felicità nella svendita dell’Italia
  11. ^ Carlo Calenda è il nuovo rappresentante dell'Italia a Bruxelles. Gentiloni: "Scelta eccezionale"
  12. ^ La protesta degli ambasciatori, a disagio per il caso Calenda. Le lettere al capo del governo
  13. ^ Calenda a Bruxelles? Una misura eccezionale, come nel dopoguerra
  14. ^ Sviluppo economico, Calenda nuovo ministro: domani la nomina
  15. ^ "Gentiloni presenta governo, Padoan confermato all'Economia". Archived from the original on 2017-12-08. Retrieved 2017-12-19.
  16. ^ Transatlantic Interests In Asia, Russel, Daniel R., United States Department of State, 13 January 2014
  17. ^ Calenda: ci vorrà tempo per il Ttip ma per il nostro export è essenziale
  18. ^ Italy rails against company relocations in bitter election campaign
  19. ^ Embraco, Calenda: "Raggiunto accordo, licenziamenti sospesi"
  20. ^ Embraco, Calenda: accordo su blocco licenziamenti fino a fine anno
  21. ^ Carlo Calenda [@CarloCalenda] (2018-03-06). "Non bisogna fare un altro partito ma lavorare per risollevare quello che c'è. Domani mi vado ad iscrivere al @pdnetwork" [We must not form another party but we must work to uplift the one that already exists. Tomorrow I am going to join the Democratic Party.] (Tweet) (in Italian). Retrieved 2018-03-06 – via Twitter.
  22. ^ "Calenda mostra la tessera del Pd: "Nessuna alleanza con M5S"" [Calenda shows his membership card in the Democratic Party: “No alliance with the Five Star Movement”]. La Stampa (in Italian). 2018-03-10. Retrieved 2018-03-10.
  23. ^ Calenda prende la tessera del Pd: «Abbiamo dato sensazione di essere élite»
  24. ^ Calenda ha detto qualcosa di sinistra
  25. ^ Calenda a ruota libera sul Pd: “Il problema non è Renzi, ma sono i 25 anni di errori”
  26. ^ Il pessimismo di Prodi e il tentativo di Calenda. Racconto di una serata nel salotto Laterza
  27. ^ Calenda: "Io operaista? È un grande complimento"
  28. ^ Alcoa, Calenda: ai lavoratori il 5% e un posto nel Consiglio di sorveglianza
  29. ^ Carlo Calenda lancia Manifesto "Siamo Europei". Aderiscono Martina e Gentiloni, diversi governatori e sindaci dem
  30. ^ Europee, i candidati acchiappavoti. Calenda e Pisapia campioni di preferenze. Alla Lega 29 seggi, al Pd 19
  31. ^ Italy’s Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, Resigns, Turning Chaos Into Uncertainty
  32. ^ Italian PM resigns with attack on 'opportunist' Salvini
  33. ^ Governo, Zingaretti: "I 5 punti per trattare con il M5S. No accordicchi, governo di svolta"
  34. ^ "Conte wins crucial support for new Italian govt coalition". Washington Post. Archived from the original on 2019-08-28. Retrieved 2019-09-06.
  35. ^ "C'è l'accordo tra M5s e Pd. Governo giallorosso ai nastri di partenza". Agi.
  36. ^ "Nasce il partito di Calenda: "Sarà un movimento aperto a tutti"". 5 September 2019.
  37. ^ Calenda lancia il suo “movimento liberal-progressista”: “Tesseramento al via da dicembre”
  38. ^ Calenda anticipa Renzi e apre la scissione nel Pd: "Un nuovo movimento liberal-progressista"
  39. ^ Matteo Richetti: "Azione non sarà un partito di centro, ma il vero polo progressista del Paese"
  40. ^ Roma, Calenda: "Mi candido a sindaco", la Repubblica

External links[]

Political offices
Preceded by
Federica Guidi 		Minister of Economic Development
2016–2018 		Succeeded by
Luigi Di Maio
Retrieved from ""