Giulio Tremonti

Giulio Tremonti ( born August 18, 1947 in Sondrio) is an Italian politician, university professor and a lawyer. He was four times Italian finance and economy minister under Silvio Berlusconi, namely from May 1994 to January 1995, June 2001 - July 2004, September 2005 - May 2006 and May 2008 - November 2011.

Political career

Tremonti is a professor of law at the University of Pavia and also specialized in tax law. He was also a guest lecturer at the Institute of Legal Practice, Oxford. His political career began in 1987 in the Partito Socialista Italiano, where he was close to Gianni De Michelis and held employee and advisor to the Italian Ministry of Finance. In 1994 he was first elected as a member of the centrist Patto Segni in the Chamber of Deputies, but joined in the same year Forza Italia and became finance minister in the first cabinet Berlusconi.

Through his friendship with Umberto Bossi, leader of the Northern League, he had a rapprochement Berlusconi to the Lega, which led to the establishment of the center-right coalition Casa delle Libertà in 2000. Tremonti's positions correspond to the positions of the often more autonomist Lega than those of his own party, which is why he has been often referred to as a Leghista with the book party Forza Italia. In particular, he enters the northern Italian regions of Lombardy and Veneto for federalist reforms and for more autonomy.

From 2001 to 2004 he took over in the second Berlusconi government, the function of the Finance and Economic Affairs, then joined but - because of the massive criticism from the ranks of the National Alliance on its fiscal policy - back. In September 2005 he returned again into office to replace his retiring successor Domenico Siniscalco and to provide for the adoption of the 2006 budget. At the same time he held the third Cabinet Berlusconi the position of deputy prime minister.

For the 15th legislative period (2006 - 2008) Tremonti was elected one of the Vice- President of the Chamber of Deputies. In the fourth Berlusconi Cabinet Tremonti was again financial and economic ministers, the end of the term in office were the political differences between Berlusconi and Tremonti revealed more clearly.

In January 2009, Tony Blair, British Prime Minister from 1997 to 2007, referred to him as "the most educated economy minister in Europe".

He is also the Chairman of the Italian Aspen Institute and occasionally writes posts for the Corriere della Sera.