Elisabetta Gardini (3 June 1956) is an Italian politician and former actress.

Biography

Born in

Padua Padua ( ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Veneto, northern Italy, and the capital of the province of Padua. The city lies on the banks of the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice and southeast of Vicenza, and has a population of 20 ...

, Gardini was a popular TV presenter, stage and screen actress. Her best-known television appearances have included ''

Unomattina ''Unomattina'' (also spelled ''Uno Mattina'', styled ''1Mattina'') is a long-running Italian morning television show, broadcast by Rai 1 since 22 December 1986, currently hosted by Massimiliano Ossini e Daniela Ferolla. The program is broadcast fr ...

'' (1985–1986), ''Europa, Europa'' (1988–1990), and the leading role of Laura Andrei in '' Una donna per amico'' (1998–2000).

Political career

Gardini was once close to

Christian Democracy Christian democracy is an ideology inspired by Christian social teaching to respond to the challenges of contemporary society and politics. Christian democracy has drawn mainly from Catholic social teaching and neo-scholasticism, as well ...

(DC) and after that party was dissolved into the Italian People's Party (PPI), she was an unsuccessful candidate for Segni Pact in the 1994 general election. In 2004 Gardini was appointed spokesperson of

Forza Italia (FI; ) was a centre-right liberal-conservative political party in Italy, with Christian democratic,Chiara Moroni, , Carocci, Rome 2008 liberalOreste Massari, ''I partiti politici nelle democrazie contempoiranee'', Laterza, Rome-Bari 2004 (esp ...

(FI), with which she was elected to the

Regional Council of Veneto The Regional Council of Veneto () is the parliament, legislative assembly of Veneto, Italy. The council, which has its seat at Palazzo Ferro Fini, located along the Grand Canal (Venice), Grand Canal in Venice. was first elected in 1970, when Re ...

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

and to 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 Bourb ...

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

. In 2008 she was the first of the non-elected candidates in the 2008 general election (Gardini entered in the

in July 2010, but resigned because she was MEP at that time). On 30 May 2008, she entered the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

, replacing Renato Brunetta, and after the 2009 election Gardini was elected for a full five-year term with

The People of Freedom The People of Freedom (, PdL) was a centre-right political party in Italy. The PdL launched by Silvio Berlusconi as an electoral list, including and National Alliance, on 27 February for the 2008 Italian general election. The list was later t ...

(PDL). Gardini was once again re-elected in the 2014 election and was subsequently appointed leader of the new

(formerly PDL) in the

, but in April 2019 Gardini left

Silvio Berlusconi Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; 29 September 193612 June 2023) was an Italian Media proprietor, media tycoon and politician who served as the prime minister of Italy in three governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a mem ...

's FI to join

Giorgia Meloni Giorgia Meloni (; born 15 January 1977) is an Italian politician who has served as Prime Minister of Italy since 2022. She is the first woman to hold the office. A member of the Chamber of Deputies (Italy), Chamber of Deputies since 2006, s ...

Brothers of Italy Brothers of Italy (, FdI) is a National conservatism, national-conservative and Right-wing populism, right-wing populist political party in Italy, that is currently the country's ruling party. After becoming the largest party in the 2022 Ita ...

(FdI) because "

Antonio Tajani Antonio Tajani (; born 4 August 1953) is an Italian politician who has been serving as Deputy Prime Minister of Italy and Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Foreign Affairs since 22 October 2022. He served as President of the Europe ...

(the Vicepresident of Berlusconi's FI) transformed Forza Italia (FI) into the 'clone' of the Democratic Party (PD) and this is not acceptable for me". For this reason, Gardini left Tajani's

European People's Party group The European People's Party Group (EPP Group or simply EPP) is a political group of the European Parliament consisting of deputies (MEPs) from the member parties of the European People's Party (EPP). Sometimes it also includes independent ME ...

(the group of FI) to join with

Raffaele Fitto Raffaele Fitto (; born 28 August 1969) is an Italian politician who has served as Vice-President of the European Commission, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Cohesion and Refo ...

's Conservative group (ECR). Gardini ran in the 2019 election as a candidate in North-East Italy, associated with ECR, of

, led by Meloni where Fitto ran for the Southern Italy constituency. Gardini was not re-elected in the European election in May 2019 and her former seat was passed to Sergio Berlato.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gardini, Elisabetta 1956 births Living people Politicians from Padua The People of Freedom politicians Brothers of Italy politicians Deputies of Legislature XV of Italy Deputies of Legislature XVI of Italy MEPs for Italy 2009–2014 Italian actor-politicians Italian television presenters Forza Italia MEPs MEPs for Italy 2004–2009 MEPs for Italy 2014–2019 21st-century women MEPs for Italy Members of the Regional Council of Veneto Italian women television presenters Women members of the Chamber of Deputies (Italy)