Barbara Degani is an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 politician from Veneto

Veneto

Veneto is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about 5 million, ranking 5th in Italy.Veneto had been for more than a millennium an independent state, the Republic of Venice, until it was eventually annexed by Italy in 1866 after brief Austrian and French rule...

.

Despite being born in Piedmont

Piedmont

Piedmont is one of the 20 regions of Italy. It has an area of 25,402 square kilometres and a population of about 4.4 million. The capital of Piedmont is Turin. The main local language is Piedmontese. Occitan is also spoken by a minority in the Occitan Valleys situated in the Provinces of...

, Degani grew up in Padua

Padua

Padua is a city and comune in the Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 . The city is sometimes included, with Venice and Treviso, in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, having...

, Veneto and got a law degree from the University of Padua

University of Padua

The University of Padua is a premier Italian university located in the city of Padua, Italy. The University of Padua was founded in 1222 as a school of law and was one of the most prominent universities in early modern Europe. It is among the earliest universities of the world and the second...

. She entered politics in 1994 by joining Forza Italia

Forza Italia

Forza Italia was a liberal-conservative, Christian democratic, and liberal political party in Italy, with a large social democratic minority, that was led by Silvio Berlusconi, four times Prime Minister of Italy....

. In 1996 she became head of the regional secretariat of the party under Giorgio Carollo

Giorgio Carollo

Giorgio Carollo is an Italian politician.He is a Member of the European Parliament for North-East, elected with the Forza Italia, part of the European People's Party and sits on the European Parliament's Committee on Fisheries and its Committee on Legal Affairs...

. She was elected to the Regional Council of Veneto

Regional Council of Veneto

The Regional Council of Veneto is the regional parliament of Veneto.It was first elected in 1970, when the ordinary Regions were instituted, on the basis of the Constitution of Italy of 1948.-Composition:...

 in 2000

Venetian regional election, 2000

The Venetian regional election of 2000 took place on 16 April 2000.Giancarlo Galan was re-elected for the third time President of the Region by a landslide over the centre-left candidate Massimo Cacciari ....

 and 2005

Venetian regional election, 2005

The Venetian regional election of 2005 took place on 3-4 April 2005.Giancarlo Galan was re-elected for the third time in a row President of the Region, but the support for him was diminished by the presence of a third candidate, Giorgio Panto, who picked votes both from the centre-right and the...

. In 2009 she was elected President of the Province of Padua

Province of Padua

The Province of Padua is a province in the Veneto region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Padua.-History and territory:...

 for The People of Freedom

The People of Freedom

The People of Freedom is a centre-right political party in Italy. With the Democratic Party, it is one of the two major parties of the current Italian party system....

.

Degani, a devout Catholic, is married to Raffaele Grazia

Raffaele Grazia

Raffaele Grazia is an Italian politician from Veneto.A member of Christian Democracy, in 1994 he joined the United Christian Democrats. Elected to the Regional Council of Veneto in 2000 for Forza Italia , he was regional minister of Labour in Galan II Government...

, whom she met in the Regional Council as he was a councillor of Forza Italia too, before switching to Carollo's Veneto for the European People's Party

Veneto for the European People's Party

Veneto for the European People's Party is a regional christian-democratic party based in Veneto.-History:...

 and, finally, to the Union of the Centre.