Roberto Fico (; born 10 October 1974) is an Italian politician. He is a member of the

Five Star Movement The Five Star Movement ( it, Movimento 5 Stelle , M5S) is a political party in Italy. Its leader and president is Giuseppe Conte, Prime Minister of Italy from 2018 until 2021. The M5S was founded on 4 October 2009 by Beppe Grillo, a comedian an ...

, and has been serving as

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

of the Italian

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon R ...

from 2018 to 2022. Previously, he was the Chairman of the

RAI RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana (; commercially styled as Rai since 2000; known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane) is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many ter ...

Supervision Commission from 2013 to 2018.

Early life

Fico was born in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adm ...

in 1974 to a middle-class family. He studied

communication studies Communication studies or communication science is an academic discipline that deals with processes of human communication and behavior, patterns of communication in interpersonal relationships, social interactions and communication in different ...

at the University of Trieste and did an

Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (; ; English: Erasmus of Rotterdam or Erasmus;''Erasmus'' was his baptismal name, given after St. Erasmus of Formiae. ''Desiderius'' was an adopted additional name, which he used from 1496. The ''Roterodamus'' w ...

exchange at the

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki ( fi, Helsingin yliopisto, sv, Helsingfors universitet, abbreviated UH) is a public research university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but founded in the city of Turku (in Swedish ''Åbo'') in 1640 as the R ...

, graduating in 2001 with a

thesis A thesis ( : theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144 ...

regarding the social and linguistic identity of

Neapolitan Neapolitan means of or pertaining to Naples, a city in Italy; or to: Geography and history * Province of Naples, a province in the Campania region of southern Italy that includes the city * Duchy of Naples, in existence during the Early and Hig ...

neomelodic music Neomelodic music, or musica neomelodica, is a musical style originating from the Italian city of Naples. Some performers in the Neomelodic scene have been criticised for glorifying crime in their songs. Style It is a peculiar borderland of ae ...

. After the university he worked for some

press office Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. Pu ...

s, in a

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

, as

tour operator A tour operator is a business that typically combines and organizes accommodations, meals, sightseeing and transportation components, in order to create a package tour. They advertise and produce brochures to promote their products, holidays a ...

manager, in a call-center, in a butcher's shop, and as a small importer of

fabrics Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...

from

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to A ...

Political career

On 18 July 2005 he founded in Naples one of the forty "Friends of

Beppe Grillo Giuseppe Piero "Beppe" Grillo (; born 21 July 1948) is an Italian comedian, actor, blogger, and politician. He has been involved in politics since 2009 as the co-founder (together with Gianroberto Casaleggio) of the Italian Five Star Movement ...

" meetups, in the wake of which the

was born. In 2010 he ran as President of

Campania (man), it, Campana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demog ...

region, but only received 1.35% of the votes in the

election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operat ...

. In 2011 he was the M5S candidate for Mayor of Naples, getting only 1.38% of votes, not exceeding the first round. In December 2012 Fico arrived first, with 228 preferences obtained on the web, in the parliamentary primary election of the M5S, and thus he was nominated for the first position on the M5S list of the constituency Campania 1. In February 2013, he was elected to the 17th

Italian Parliament The Italian Parliament ( it, Parlamento italiano) is the national parliament of the Italian Republic. It is the representative body of Italian citizens and is the successor to the Parliament of the Kingdom of Italy (1861–1943), the transitio ...

. In 2013, Fico was voted by his parliamentary group to the Presidency of the

without being elected. On 6 June 2013 he was elected Chairman of the

Supervision Commission. Fico has renounced the function allowance to which he would have been entitled as Chairman of the RAI Supervision Commission and the personal car. As president of the RAI Supervision Commission, during his presidency, he introduced the live

streaming Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content i ...

broadcast on the

web TV Streaming television is the digital distribution of television content, such as TV shows, as streaming media delivered over the Internet. Streaming television stands in contrast to dedicated terrestrial television delivered by over-the-air ae ...

of the Chamber of Deputies of all the auditions, the publication on the Parliament website of the questions addressed by the commissioners to RAI and the related answers and the determination of a maximum of 15 days for the answers to the questions by the public radio and television company. Among the acts approved in the Commission, there was a resolution aimed at resolving and avoiding possible conflicts of interest. As a deputy, he also presented a draft law on the governance of RAI; one of the points, the plan for corporate transparency, has merged into the RAI reform approved in 2015 by the Parliament. Following the implementation of this plan, the company had to make public the remuneration of senior managers, editorial departments and journalistic publications.

President of the Chamber of Deputies

In March 2018, he was re-elected in the constituency of Napoli–

Fuorigrotta Fuorigrotta ( nap, Forerotta; ) is a western suburb of Naples, southern Italy. Covering an area of 6,2 km2, it is the most populated suburb of the city (population: 76.521). Geography It lies beyond the Posillipo hill and has been joined ...

with 57.6% of votes. On 24 March 2018, Fico was elected President of the Chamber of Deputies, supported by his own party, the

League League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full contact footba ...

Forza Italia Forza ItaliaThe name is not usually translated into English: ''forza'' is the second-person singular imperative of ''forzare'', in this case translating to "to compel" or "to press", and so means something like "Forward, Italy", "Come on, Ital ...

and

Brothers of Italy Brothers of Italy ( it, Fratelli d'Italia, FdI) is a national-conservative and right-wing populist political party in Italy. It is led by Giorgia Meloni, the incumbent Prime Minister of Italy and the first woman to serve in the position. Accor ...

. On 23 April 2018, after the failure of the mandate to President of the Senate,

Elisabetta Casellati Maria Elisabetta Casellati (; born 12 August 1946) is an Italian lawyer and politician. She was President of the Italian Senate from 2018 to 2022. She was the first woman ever to have held this position. Casellati is a long-time member of the lib ...

, to start a government between the M5S and the

centre-right coalition The centre-right coalition ( it, coalizione di centro-destra) is an alliance of political parties in Italy, active—under several forms and names—since 1994, when Silvio Berlusconi entered politics and formed his Forza Italia party. Despite ...

, he was given an exploratory mandate by President Sergio Mattarella to try and reconcile the issues between the Five Star Movement and the Democratic Party, in order to break the post-election

political deadlock In politics, gridlock or deadlock or political stalemate is a situation when there is difficulty passing laws that satisfy the needs of the people. A government is gridlocked when the ratio between bills passed and the agenda of the legislat ...

and form a fully functional new government. His first year as President was characterized by a strong opposition to the policies promoted by Interior Minister

Matteo Salvini Matteo Salvini (; born 9 March 1973) is an Italian politician who has served as Deputy Prime Minister of Italy and Minister of Infrastructure and Transport since 2022. He has been Federal Secretary of Italy's Lega Nord ( Northern League) party ...

, which were particularly severe on immigration and security.

Political views

Fico often stated he was in favor of extending the right to

marriage Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between ...

and

adoption Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, fro ...

by same-sex couples. He also supports

euthanasia Euthanasia (from el, εὐθανασία 'good death': εὖ, ''eu'' 'well, good' + θάνατος, ''thanatos'' 'death') is the practice of intentionally ending life to eliminate pain and suffering. Different countries have different eut ...

for terminally ill person, and the so-called ''

jus soli ''Jus soli'' ( , , ; meaning "right of soil"), commonly referred to as birthright citizenship, is the right of anyone born in the territory of a state to nationality or citizenship. ''Jus soli'' was part of the English common law, in cont ...

'', that is the right of anyone born in the territory of a state to nationality or citizenship. Fico is considered the leader of the left-wing faction of the Five Star Movement, often in opposition to

Luigi Di Maio Luigi Di Maio (; born 6 July 1986) is an Italian former stadium beverage vendor and politician. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2019 to 2022, as Deputy Prime Minister of Italy and Minister of Economic Development, Labour and So ...

.Fico, il grillino di sinistra, alla guida di Montecitorio grazie a Salvini
/ref>

Electoral history

First-past-the-post elections

References

External links

* * *
Official website
on

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dust ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fico, Roberto 1974 births Living people Politicians from Naples University of Trieste alumni Five Star Movement politicians Deputies of Legislature XVII of Italy Deputies of Legislature XVIII of Italy Presidents of the Chamber of Deputies (Italy) 21st-century Italian politicians