Carlo Calenda

He was Minister of Economic Development from 2016 to 2018, a member of the European Parliament from 2019 to 2022, and is a Senator. He is named among the possible contenders for Prime Minister of Italy in the next general election.

Career

Calenda holds a law degree from Sapienza University of Rome. Before politics he worked as a customer relations manager at Ferrari, head of product marketing at Sky Italia and director of strategic international affairs at Confindustria. He was Deputy Minister of Economic Development from 2013, Italy's permanent representative to the EU in 2016, and Minister of Economic Development from May 2016 to June 2018 under Matteo Renzi and Paolo Gentiloni. He joined the Democratic Party in 2018, was elected to the European Parliament in 2019, and founded Azione in November 2019. He took 19.8% in the 2021 Rome mayoral race, finishing third. In 2022 he was elected Senator in Sicily; the Third Pole list with Italia Viva won about 7.8% in the general election. Azione took 3.3% in the 2024 European elections.

Positions

Reference works describe Calenda as a centrist, pro-European reformist drawing on liberal-socialist and social-liberal traditions. Italian press in 2026 describes Azione as an independent centre force that opposes the government, keeps distance from the right-wing sovereigntists, and stays apart from a broad coalition that includes the Five Star Movement and the Left, with alliances built city by city. A federation with Italia Viva formed in December 2022 and dissolved in April 2023 over disagreements about a merger.

Summarised automatically from the linked sources. Wikipedia · Il Foglio

Photo: Quirinale, Attribution, Wikimedia Commons (cropped)