Danilo Toninelli (born 2 August 1974) is an Italian politician.

Biography

Toninelli was born in

Soresina Soresina ( Soresinese: ) is a '' comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Cremona in the Italian region Lombardy, located about southeast of Milan and about northwest of Cremona. It received the honorary title of city with a presidential dec ...

on 2 August 1974. He graduated in law at the

University of Brescia The University of Brescia ( it, Università degli Studi di Brescia) is an Italian public research university located in Brescia, Italy. It was founded in 1982 and is branched in 4 Faculties. The University of Brescia was officially established ...

in 1999. From 1999 to 2001 he was an Officer within the

Carabinieri The Carabinieri (, also , ; formally ''Arma dei Carabinieri'', "Arm of Carabineers"; previously ''Corpo dei Carabinieri Reali'', "Royal Carabineers Corps") are the national gendarmerie of Italy who primarily carry out domestic and foreign poli ...

Corps. Before being elected deputy, he worked as a technical inspector for an insurance company until 2013.

Political career

In 2010, Toninelli was candidate for regional councillor with 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 a ...

in the Lombard regional election, but he was not elected. He was elected Deputy in the

2013 Italian general election The 2013 Italian general election was held on 24 and 25 February 2013 to determine the 630 members of the Chamber of Deputies and the 315 elective members of the Senate of the Republic for the 17th Italian Parliament. The centre-left alliance It ...

and from 7 May 2013 to 20 July 2015 he was Vice-President of the 1st Committee (Constitutional Affairs of the Council Presidency and Interior) of the

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 ...

, while subsequently he became a member of the "Standing Committee of the opinions" and of the council for the regulation of the Chamber. In the 2018 general election he was elected Senator and on 27 March 2018 he became head of the M5S group in the Senate. On 1 June 2018 Toninelli was appointed Minister of Infrastructure and Transport of the

Conte Cabinet The first Conte government was the 65th government of the Italian Republic. It was led by Giuseppe Conte, an independent, and it was in office from 1 June 2018 to 5 September 2019. The cabinet was formed by a coalition between the Five Star Mo ...

Critics and political gaffes

Since the inauguration of the government in June 2018, Toninelli has often been the handle to which the

Parliamentary opposition Parliamentary opposition is a form of political opposition to a designated government, particularly in a Westminster-based parliamentary system. This article uses the term ''government'' as it is used in Parliamentary systems, i.e. meaning ''t ...

clung to define the

as "unprepared" and "incompetent". In September 2018, in the report to the Chambers, Toninelli denounced "pressures" he suffered from "AISCAT" (Italian association of motorway companies and tunnels) not to publish "the motorway concession contracts and all related annexes", with the opposition calling him for better clarity; two days later Toninelli presented the offending documents, which however proved to be issued in months of January and March and addressed to his predecessor,

Graziano Delrio Graziano Delrio (born 27 April 1960) is an Italian medical doctor and politician, who served in the government of Italy as Minister of Infrastructure and Transport from 2 April 2015 to 1 June 2018. He previously served as the state secretary to ...

. Later that same month, Toninelli announced the decree on the reconstruction of

Ponte Morandi (English: Morandi Bridge), officially (English: Polcevera Viaduct), was a road viaduct in Genoa, Liguria, Italy, constructed between 1963 and 1967 along the A10 motorway over the Polcevera River, from which it derived its official name. It c ...

, after its partial collapse that killed 43 people, proposing the idea of a "livable bridge where to eat and have fun"—definition that has left many colleagues confused and

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of t ...

people offended. In October 2018 Toninelli spoke about the "sectoral limitations by

South Tyrol it, Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano – Alto Adige lld, Provinzia Autonoma de Balsan/Bulsan – Südtirol , settlement_type = Autonomous province , image_skyline = , image_alt ...

authorities that strongly damage the

economy of Italy The economy of Italy is a highly developed social market economy. It is the third-largest national economy in the European Union, the 10th-largest in the world by nominal GDP, and the 12th-largest by GDP (PPP). Italy is a founding member of t ...

" referring to the

Brenner Pass The Brenner Pass (german: link=no, Brennerpass , shortly ; it, Passo del Brennero ) is a mountain pass through the Alps which forms the border between Italy and Austria. It is one of the principal passes of the Eastern Alpine range and ha ...

, which however he erroneously called multiple times as the " Brenner Tunnel".

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Toninelli, Danilo 1974 births Politicians from the Province of Cremona 21st-century Italian politicians Conte I Cabinet Five Star Movement politicians Deputies of Legislature XVII of Italy Senators of Legislature XVIII of Italy Living people Transport ministers of Italy University of Brescia alumni 20th-century Italian people