Francesco Storace

The Honourable Francesco Storace
President of Lazio
In office 12 March 2000 – 2 May 2005
Preceded by	Piero Badaloni
Succeeded by	Piero Marrazzo
Minister of Health
In office 23 April 2005 – 10 March 2006
Prime Minister	Silvio Berlusconi
Preceded by	Girolamo Sirchia
Succeeded by	Silvio Berlusconi
Personal details
Born	25 January 1959 Cassino, Italy
Nationality	Italian
Political party	Italian Social Movement (1980s–1995) National Alliance (1995–2007) The Right (2007–present)
Profession	Politician, journalist
Religion	Roman Catholicism

Francesco Storace (born 25 January 1959 in Cassino, Lazio) is an Italian politician.

Biography

He began his career at the right-wing newspaper Il Secolo d'Italia, until entering the ranks of the far right party Italian Social Movement (MSI) and later of National Alliance (AN) after repudiation of extremism. He was elected to the Chamber of Deputies for the first time in 1994. At the time he was the spokesman of Gianfranco Fini. From 1996 to 2000 he was chairman of the bicameral Commission supervising the RAI.

In April 2000 he was elected President of Lazio. Among measures taken by Storace there was the opening of Sant'Andrea hospital and other health centers.^[1] His health management of Lazio won praise for Giulio Andreotti and some members of the Vatican curia.^[2]

In 2005 he failed the re-election, defeated by the centre-left candidate Piero Marrazzo. He was subsequently named Minister of Health in the Berlusconi III Cabinet.

In March 2006 Storace was involved in the so-called Laziogate scandal, leading to his resignation from the government. He is suspected to have illegally exploited informatics mean to investigate the memberships of the new party founded by Alessandra Mussolini, a former member of AN who was one of his rivals in the 2005 regional election. In October 2012 Storace was acquitted, because "the crime does not exist".^[3]

On 10 April 2006 he was elected to the Italian Senate in Lazio, where he was at the head of the party list.

On 3 July 2007, after having continually criticized the leadership of Gianfranco Fini at least since 2005, he finally left AN on 16 November 2007. One of the motivations of the criticism between Fini and Storace is the fact that Fini repudiated the values of the right. In November 2007 he founded his brand new national-conservative party, named La Destra, which means The Right.

In December 2012 Storace decides to run for president of the Lazio region for the 2013 elections.

References

1. Paghiamo ancora i debiti di Badaloni, "Il quotidiano della Tuscia"]. (Italian)
2. S'avanza Sua Sanità, 29/04/2005. (Italian)
3. Il commento dell’avv. Romolo Reboa alla sentenza di assoluzione nel processo di appello del cosiddetto Laziogate. (Italian)

External links

• Official website