Altero Matteoli

Altero Matteoli ( born September 8, 1940 in Cecina ) is an Italian politician of the Popolo della Libertà. In Silvio Berlusconi's second and third Cabinet he was Italian Minister of Environment (2001 - 2006). On 29 May 2006 he was elected mayor of Orbetello ( Grosseto Province ). From May 2008 to November 2011 he was Minister of Transport and Infrastructure in Berlusconi's fourth cabinet.

Political career

Matteoli is a qualified accountant and entrepreneur. His political career began in the neo-fascist Movimento Sociale Italiano (MSI -DN), for which he sat in the city councils of Castelnuovo di Garfagnana ( Lucca province ) and Livorno. He also served as regional chairman of the party in Tuscany. From 1983 to 2006 he was member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, and since 2006 he is sitting in the Senate.

In 1994 and 1995, his party walked under the new name National Alliance (AN) to a fairly liberal- conservative party. As a Member Matteoli worked, inter alia, in the parliamentary committee of inquiry to the Mafia and other criminal organizations. There he produced a report on the collusion between Mafia and politics.

After the victory of the center-right coalition Casa delle Libertà in the parliamentary elections in May 2001, he became Minister of Environment and Spatial Planning under Silvio Berlusconi and held that post until the change of government in May 2006. In April 2006, he was appointed group chairman of the AN in the Senate. On 8 May 2008 he was appointed Berlusconi as head of department of the Ministry of Infrastructure in his new government.