Denis Verdini
Encyclopedia
Biography
He graduated in Political Sciences and later became president of the local cooperative bank Credito Cooperativo Fiorentino.He began his political career in the Italian Republican Party
Italian Republican Party
The Italian Republican Party is a liberal political party in Italy.The PRI is party with old roots that originally took a left-wing position, claiming descent from the political position of Giuseppe Mazzini...
, without being elected in the 1994 Italian general elections
Italian general election, 1994
An early national general election was held in Italy on March 27, 1994 to elect members of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right alliance won handily the election for the Chamber and only narrowly lost that for the Senate....
. After Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi , also known as Il Cavaliere – from knighthood to the Order of Merit for Labour which he received in 1977 – is an Italian politician and businessman who served three terms as Prime Minister of Italy, from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006, and 2008 to 2011. Berlusconi is also the...
's victory in those elections, he became a member of his 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....
party. He was subsequently elected in the Italian Parliament
Parliament of Italy
The Parliament of Italy is the national parliament of Italy. It is a bicameral legislature with 945 elected members . The Chamber of Deputies, with 630 members is the lower house. The Senate of the Republic is the upper house and has 315 members .Since 2005, a party list electoral law is being...
in 2001
Italian general election, 2001
A national general election was held in Italy on May 13, 2001 to elect members of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Republic. The 14th Parliament of the Italian republic was chosen....
, 2006
Italian general election, 2006
In the Italian general election, 2006 for the renewal of the two Chambers of the Parliament of Italy held on April 9 and April 10, 2006 the incumbent prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, leader of the center-right House of Freedoms, was narrowly defeated by Romano Prodi, leader of the center-left The...
and 2008
Italian general election, 2008
A snap general election was held in Italy on 13 April and 14 April 2008. The election came after President Giorgio Napolitano dissolved parliament on 6 February 2008 following the defeat of the government of Prime Minister Romano Prodi in a January 2008 Senate vote, and the unsuccessful tentative...
. He is a minor shareholder (15%) of the newspaper Il Foglio
Il Foglio
Il Foglio is a Italian centre-right daily newspaper, with circulation of about 13,000 copies per day. It was founded in 1996 by the Italian journalist and politician Giuliano Ferrara, after he left as editor of the magazine Panorama- Characteristics :...
.
In 2009, after Berlusconi created the 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....
, he was named member of the national coordination office, together with Ignazio La Russa
Ignazio La Russa
Ignazio Benito Maria La Russa is an Italian politician . He became Minister of Defence in the fourth cabinet of Silvio Berlusconi on 8 May 2008...
and Sandro Bondi
Sandro Bondi
Sandro Bondi is an Italian politician of The People of Freedom. He was appointed on 8 May 2008 to be Culture Minister until March 23, 2011 in Silvio Berlusconi's fourth cabinet.-Biography:...
.
On 23 July 2010 he resigned as president of Credito Cooperativo Fiorentino after his involvement in the so-called "P3" scandal, in which he has been charged for corruption and participation in illegal secret activities, aiming to influence the verdict of the Italian Constitutional Court
Constitutional Court of Italy
The Constitutional Court of Italy is a supreme court of Italy, the other being the Court of Cassation. Sometimes the name Consulta is used as a metonym for it, because its sessions are held in Palazzo della Consulta in Rome....
regarding the Lodo Alfano
Lodo Alfano
The Lodo Alfano , named after Berlusconi's Minister of Justice Angelino Alfano, was an Italian law, valid between 2008 and 2009, granting immunity from prosecution to the four highest political offices in Italy...
, a law by which Berlusconi would escape his penal involvements due to its institutional role (the law was later declared anti-constitutional). Verdini is also under investigation by the Court of Florence for corruption.