Enrico Letta

Prime Minister of Italy

20 August 1966 Pisa, Tuscany, Italy

-

28 April 2013 – 22 February 2014

Italian politician Enrico Letta (Italian:  ; born 20 August 1966) is an Italian politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy from April 2013 to February 2014, leading a grand coalition of centre-left and centre-right parties. Since March 2021, Letta has been Secretary of the Democratic Party (PD). After working as an academic, Letta entered politics in 1998 when he was appointed to the Cabinet as Minister of Community Policies, a role he held until 1999 when he was promoted to become Minister of Industry, Commerce and Crafts. In 2001, he left the Cabinet upon his election to the Chamber of Deputies. From 2006 to 2008, he was appointed Secretary of the Council of Ministers. In 2007, Letta was one of the senior founding members of the Democratic Party, and in 2009 was elected as its Deputy Secretary. After the 2013 election produced an inconclusive result, and following negotiations between party leaders, President Giorgio Napolitano gave Letta the task of forming a national unity government composed of his own PD, the centre-right People of Freedom (PdL) and the centrist Civic Choice, in order to mitigate the economic and social crises engulfing Italy as a result of the Great Recession. Following an agreement between parties, Letta resigned as PD Deputy Secretary and was appointed Prime Minister of Italy on 28 April 2013. His government tried to promote economic recovery by securing a funding deal from the European Union to alleviate youth unemployment, and also abolished the state funding of political parties, something seen as a watershed moment for Italian political politics which for years had depended upon public funds. Letta also faced the early stages of the European migrant crisis, including the deadliest shipwreck in the recent history of the Mediterranean Sea; in response, Letta implemented Operation Mare Nostrum to patrol the maritime borders and rescue migrants. In November 2013, PdL leader Silvio Berlusconi attempted to withdraw his party's support from the Government, in order to bring about a change of Prime Minister; in response, all of the Cabinet's centre-right ministers chose to leave the PdL and form a new party, saying they wished to continue supporting Letta. Despite securing his position, the election in December 2013 of Matteo Renzi as PD Secretary brought significant leadership tensions within the PD to public view. After several weeks of denying that he would seek a change, on 13 February 2014, Renzi publicly challenged Letta for the position of Prime Minister. Letta quickly lost the support of his colleagues, and resigned as Prime Minister on 22 February. Following his resignation, Letta initially retired from politics, leaving Italy to accept appointment as Dean of the School of International Affairs at Sciences Po in Paris. In March 2021, the Secretary of the PD Nicola Zingaretti resigned after growing tensions within the party. Many prominent members of the party asked Letta to become the new leader; after a few days, Letta announced that he would return to Italy to accept the candidacy and, on 14 March 2021, he was elected as new Secretary by the national assembly.