{{short description|Italian politician (born 1947)}} {{use dmy dates|date=January 2018}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = | name = Clemente Mastella | image = Clemente Mastella 2020.jpg | caption = Mastella in 2020 | office = Mayor of Benevento | term_start = 20 June 2016 | term_end = | predecessor = Fausto Pepe | successor = | office1 = Minister of Justice | term_start1 = 17 May 2006 | term_end1 = 16 January 2008 | prime_minister1 = Romano Prodi | predecessor1 = Roberto Castelli | successor1 = Romano Prodi | office2 = Minister of Labour and Social Security | term_start2 = 10 May 1994 | term_end2 = 17 January 1995 | prime_minister2 = Silvio Berlusconi | predecessor2 = Gino Giugni | successor2 = Tiziano Treu | office3 = Member of the European Parliament<br>for Southern Italy | term_start3 = 14 July 2009 | term_end3 = 1 July 2014 | term_start4 = 20 July 1999 | term_end4 = 20 July 2004 | office5 = Member of the Senate of the Republic | term_start5 = 28 April 2006 | term_end5 = 28 April 2008 | constituency5 = Calabria | office6 = Member of the Chamber of Deputies | term_start6 = 5 July 1976 | term_end6 = 27 April 2006 | constituency6 = Campania | office7 = Mayor of Ceppaloni | term_start7 = 27 May 2003 | term_end7 = 15 April 2008 | predecessor7 = Nicola Nino Rossi | successor7 = Claudio Cataudo | term_start8 = 10 March 1986 | term_end8 = 21 July 1992 | successor8 = Antonio Parente | birth_name = Mario Clemente Mastella | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1947|2|5|df=y}} | birth_place = Ceppaloni, Italy | party = DC (1976–1994)<br>CDC (1994–1998)<br>CDR (1998)<br>UDR (1998–1999)<br>UDEUR (1999–2013)<br>FI (2013–2015; 2018–2020)<br>PpS (2015–2017)<br>UDEUR 2.0 (2017–2018)<br>NC (2020–2021)<br>NDC (since 2021) | height = {{convert|1.77|m|ftin|abbr=on}} | spouse = {{marriage|Sandra Lonardo|1975}} | children = 2 | profession = Politician, former journalist }}
'''Mario Clemente Mastella''' (born 5 February 1947) is an Italian politician who has been the mayor of Benevento since 20 June 2016. He also served as leader of the Union of Democrats for Europe (UDEUR), a minor centrist and Christian-democratic Italian party. Mastella, who began his career in the Christian Democracy (DC) party, being elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1976, is known for his ''trasformismo'', changing over his career many political parties and affiliations.
Mastella was Minister of Labour and Social Policies in the first Berlusconi government from 10 May 1994 to 17 January 1995 and Minister of Justice in the second Prodi government from 17 May 2006 to 17 January 2008. During the same period, he was a member of the Senate of the Republic and determined the narrow majority of Romano Prodi's government, which ended when he started the 2008 Italian government crisis that led to Prodi's resignation as prime minister and Silvio Berlusconi return to power after the snap election that ensued. In June 2009, he was elected to the European Parliament on the list of The People of Freedom (PdL) of Berlusconi; it was his second stint at the European Parliament, after a first term with the UDEUR from 1999 until 2004. After having been the mayor of Ceppaloni twice in three separate decades (1980s, 1990s, and 2000s), he was elected mayor of Benevento in 2016 and re-elected in 2021.
== Early life and education == Mastella was born in Ceppaloni, in the province of Benevento. He graduated in philosophy at the University of Naples Federico II with a thesis on Antonio Gramsci, and later became a journalist. His career as a journalist and his beginnings in political life have been widely described by himself in various interviews, cited for example in the book ''La casta'' by Sergio Rizzo and Gian Antonio Stella, where his hiring at the RAI, Italy's public broadcasting, had been helped by a recommendation from the DC politician Ciriaco De Mita.<ref>{{cite web |last=Coen |first=Leonardo |date=31 August 2007 |title=Mastella |url=http://coen.blogautore.repubblica.it/2007/08/31/mastella/ |access-date=8 April 2024 |website=La Repubblica<!--Blog Trotter--> |language=it}}</ref> The local editorial office where Mastella took office proclaimed a three-day strike against the entry into the role of a journalist hired without regular competition and for direct political appointment.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rizzo |first1=Sergio |last2=Stella |first2=Gian Antonio|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cj8WAQAAIAAJ |title=La casta. Così i politici italiani sono diventati intoccabili |publisher=Rizzoli |year=2007 |isbn=978-88-17-01714-5 |location=Milan |page=112 |language=it |quote=Ad ammetterlo è stato lo stesso Mastella: 'A farmi entrare alla Rai fu De Mita. Tre giorni di sciopero contro la mia assunzione. Ai colleghi replicai soltanto: e voi invece siete entrati per concorso!' |access-date=8 April 2024 |via=Google Books |trans-quote=Mastella himself admitted it: 'It was De Mita who made me join Rai. Three days of strike against my hiring. I only replied to my colleagues: and instead you joined by competition!'}}</ref>
== Political career == === Deputy, mayor of Ceppaloni, and Minister of Labour === In 1976, Mastella was elected to the Chamber of Deputies as a member of the DC party. In 1986, he became mayor of Ceppaloni, a position he held until 1992 and again from 2003 to 2008. From 1989 to 1992, he was the Secretary of State to the Ministry of Defence. From 1993 to 1994, he was the vice-president of the Chamber of Deputies. After the party's dissolution in 1994, Mastella joined with Pier Ferdinando Casini to found a new party, the Christian Democratic Centre (CCD). That same year, following the election victory of Berlusconi, he was appointed Minister of Labour and Social Policies.<ref name="Treccani 2011">{{cite web |date=2011 |title=Mastèlla, Mario Clemente |url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/mario-clemente-mastella/,%20https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/mario-clemente-mastella/ |access-date=8 April 2024 |website=Treccani |language=it}}</ref>
In 1998, after the fall of the first Prodi government, Mastella decided to follow Francesco Cossiga, lifetime senator and former Italian president. Mastella left his party to found the Christian Democrats for the Republic (CDR), then Democratic Union for the Republic (UDR). This new political party, which supported the new centre-left coalition government led by Massimo D'Alema, lasted one year. In 1999, Mastella took over the leadership of UDEUR and was elected to the European Parliament.<ref name="Treccani 2011"/> In 2005, Mastella took part in the centre-left coalition's primary election for the leadership of The Union. He obtained 4.6% of the vote. Mastella and the then Sicily president Salvatore Cuffaro were subjects of a scandal when it was revealed that they had been the best men of Francesco Campanella, a former member of the Sicilian Mafia who helped the boss Bernardo Provenzano when he was a fugitive from the law. Mastella had been a witness at Campanella's wedding in July 2000.<ref name="gua">{{cite news |last=Hooper |first=John |date=17 May 2006 |title=Italian justice minister linked to mafia inquiry |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/may/18/italy.johnhooper |access-date=8 April 2024 |work=The Guardian |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>
=== Senator and Minister of Justice === In 2006, Mastella became minister of Justice in the second Prodi government.<ref name="Treccani 2011"/> Mastella promoted a general amnesty in 2006. He also proposed criminalising Holocaust denial but dropped the proposal after opposition by historians and concerns about such a law being unconstitutional. As Minister of Justice, Mastella received an advice of judicial proceedings in February 2007 from the Naples prosecutors' office. The office was investigating Mastella for fraudulent bankruptcy regarding the collapse of the Naples football club SSC Napoli in 2004. Mastella had been the vice-president of the club's board of directors.<ref>{{cite web |date=9 February 2007 |title=Mastella, indagato per il fallimento del Napoli: 'Del tutto estraneo' |url=https://www.positanonews.it/2007/02/mastella-indagato-per-il-fallimento-del-napoli-del-tutto-estraneo/84747/ |access-date=8 April 2024 |website=Positano News |language=it}}</ref>
In September 2007, Mastella asked the High Council of the Judiciary to arrange the transfer of Catanzaro prosecuting attorney Luigi De Magistris, who was inquiring on a committee of illegal transactions composed by politicians (including Mastella himself) and magistrates. Mastella's wife, Sandra Lonardo, at the time also a UDEUR politician who was the acting president of the Regional Council of Campania. She had been under house arrest for suspected bribery since 16 January 2008.<ref>{{cite web |date=16 January 2008 |title=Domiciliari alla moglie di Mastella Indagato Clemente, arresti nell'Udeur |url=https://www.repubblica.it/2008/01/sezioni/cronaca/moglie-mastella/moglie-mastella/moglie-mastella.html |access-date=8 April 2024 |website=La Repubblica |language=it}}</ref> Meanwhile, Mastella resigned from his position as Justice Minister;<ref>{{cite web |date=16 January 2008 |title=Mastella: 'Caccia all'uomo, mi dimetto' Prodi lo invita a restare al suo posto |url=https://www.repubblica.it/2008/01/sezioni/cronaca/moglie-mastella/mastella-sconvolto/mastella-sconvolto.html |access-date=8 April 2024 |website=La Repubblica |language=it}}</ref> in announcing his resignation, he said that "between the love of my family and power I choose the former" and expressed his desire to be "more free from a political and personal point of view". Prodi rejected the resignation.<ref>{{cite news |date=16 January 2008 |title=Italian justice minister resigns |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7191413.stm |access-date=8 April 2024 |work=BBC News}}</ref> On 17 January 2008, Mastella said again that he was resigning. Prodi was to temporarily take over his portfolio.<ref>{{cite web |date=17 January 2008 |title=Italian PM to temporarily take over justice minister's portfolio |url=http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-01/17/content_7441593.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304094456/http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-01/17/content_7441593.htm |archive-date=4 March 2016 |access-date=8 April 2024 |website=Xinhua News}}</ref> In 2017, Mastella was cleared of charges.<ref>{{cite web |last=Fuccillo |first=Roberto |date=12 September 2017 |title=Clemente Mastella assolto dall'inchiesta che nove anni fa causò la caduta del Governo Prodi |url=https://napoli.repubblica.it/cronaca/2017/09/12/news/mastella_assolto_a_9_anni_da_dimissioni_governo_prodi-175305300/ |access-date=8 April 2024 |website=La Repubblica |language=it}}</ref>
=== 2008 Italian political crisis === Despite having earlier said that he would support Prodi's government without participating in it, Mastella said on 21 January 2008 that his party was ending its support, thereby depriving the government of its narrow majority in the Senate of the Republic. Mastella said that UDEUR wanted an early election and that it would vote against the government if there was a vote of confidence.<ref>{{cite news |date=21 January 2008 |title=Mastella to Drop Support for Prodi, Favors Elections (Update1) |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=awYfD8PBmD4A&refer=home |access-date=8 April 2024 |work=Bloomberg News}}{{dead link|date=April 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=21 January 2008 |title=Italy PM in cabinet crisis talks |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7201536.stm |access-date=8 April 2024 |work=BBC News}}</ref> Mastella's decision occurred a few days after the Constitutional Court of Italy confirmed that there would be a referendum to modify the electoral system.<ref>{{cite web |date=1 January 2008 |title=Italian court okays referendum on election law |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/2008/01/16/italy-election-referendum-idUSL1685828620080116/<!--https://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSL1685828620080116/--> |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604124832/http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/01/16/italy-election-referendum-idUSL1685828620080116 |archive-date=4 June 2011 |access-date=8 April 2024 |website=Reuters}}</ref> Earlier in 2007, Mastella had stated more than once that if the referendum was confirmed, it would lead directly to the fall of the government.<ref>{{cite web |date=10 April 2007 |title=Legge elettorale, Mastella minaccia la crisi |url=https://www.corriere.it/Primo_Piano/Politica/2007/04_Aprile/10/legge_elettorale_mastella_referendum.shtml |access-date=8 April 2024 |website=Corriere della Sera |language=it}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=10 April 2007 |title=Mastella: Se c'è referendum si rischia la crisi di governo |url=http://www.lastampa.it/redazione/cmsSezioni/politica/200704articoli/20302girata.asp |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070828192601/http://www.lastampa.it/redazione/cmsSezioni/politica/200704articoli/20302girata.asp |archive-date=28 August 2007 |access-date=8 April 2024 |website=La Stampa |language=it}}</ref>
The fall of the government disrupted a pending election-law referendum that, if it had been passed, would have made it harder for small parties like Mastella's to gain seats in the Italian Parliament.<ref>{{cite news |date=24 January 2008 |title=Prodi Likely to Quit, Prompt Vote or Election Reform |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aEv_XkZP2lg0&refer=home |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120731162214/http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aEv_XkZP2lg0&refer=home |url-status=dead |archive-date=31 July 2012 |access-date=8 April 2024 |work=Bloomberg News}}</ref> On 6 February 2008, Mastella announced that he would be part of Berlusconi's House of Freedoms party.<ref>{{cite web |date=6 February 2008 |title=Castelli: 'La Lega non vuole Mastella' |url=https://www.corriere.it/politica/08_febbraio_06/castelli_mastella_3017859a-d4f9-11dc-b2ef-0003ba99c667.shtml |access-date=8 April 2024 |website=Corriere della Sera |language=it}}</ref> On 1 March 2008, Berlusconi refused to form a coalition with Mastella, citing too many differences in their political programmes.<ref>{{cite web |date=1 March 2008 |title=Berlusconi chiude con Mastella L'Udeur: 'Noi andremo da soli' |url=https://www.repubblica.it/2008/02/sezioni/politica/verso-elezioni-7/berlusconi-udeur/berlusconi-udeur.html?ref=search |access-date=8 April 2024 |website=La Repubblica |language=it}}</ref> After failing to secure a coalition with any other political party, Mastella decided to quit the electoral competition on 7 March 2008, as the Italian electoral system subjects political parties not a part of a coalition to thresholds of 4% and 8% for the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Republic, respectively.<ref>{{cite web |last=Milella |first=Liana |date=7 March 2008 |title=La resa di Mastella 'Non mi presento' |url=https://www.repubblica.it/2008/03/sezioni/politica/verso-elezioni-9/resa-mastella/resa-mastella.html |access-date=8 April 2024 |website=La Repubblica |language=it}}</ref>
=== Member of the European Parliament === From 1999 to 2004, Mastella was a member of the European Parliament (MEP) for UDEUR as part of the European People's Party (EPP). In June 2009, Mastella was elected for a second time a MEP on the EPP list of Berlusconi's PdL party.<ref name="Treccani 2011"/> In July 2009, he attracted attention because of statements made about the ''per diem'' collected at the European Parliament. In a lift to his assistants, he said: "An allowance of 290 euro! It's misery. ... They do not know what you get in the Italian Parliament."<ref>{{cite web |last=Marozzi |first=Marco |date=15 July 2009 |title='Una miseria questi 290 euro' Mastella protesta per la diaria |url=https://www.repubblica.it/2009/07/sezioni/esteri/europa-parlamento/mastella-lamenta/mastella-lamenta.html |access-date=8 April 2024 |website=La Repubblica |language=it}}</ref> In the first months of the Seventh European Parliament legislature (2009–2014), he was one of the MEPs less present during voting in plenary meetings.<ref>{{cite web |date=2009 |title=Settima legislatura − Presenze al voto in plenaria |url=http://www.delegazione-italiana-ppe-de.eu/it/presenze |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110614210458/http://www.delegazione-italiana-ppe-de.eu/it/presenze |archive-date=14 June 2011 |access-date=8 April 2024 |website=EPP Group in the European Parliament<!--Delegazione Italiana del gruppo PPE al Parlamento Europeo--> |language=it}}</ref>
=== Mayor of Benevento === On 20 June 2016, Mastella was elected mayor of Benevento as head of a centre-right coalition.<ref name="Treccani 2011"/><ref>{{cite web |date=4 July 2022 |title=Consenso sindaci {{!}} Mastella {{!}} 'Grazie ai beneventani {{!}} stiamo andando nella direzione giusta' |url=https://www.zazoom.it/2022-07-04/consenso-sindaci-mastella-grazie-ai-beneventani-stiamo-andando-nella-direzione-giusta/11185271/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220704151013/https://www.zazoom.it/2022-07-04/consenso-sindaci-mastella-grazie-ai-beneventani-stiamo-andando-nella-direzione-giusta/11185271/ |archive-date=4 July 2022 |access-date=8 April 2024 |website=Zazoom Social News |language=it}}</ref> In July 2019, Mastella was considered as a Forza Italia (FI) candidate for the 2020 Campania regional election.<ref>{{cite web |last=Iurillo |first=Vincenzo |date=13 July 2019 |title=Campania, l'inversione di Luigi Barone: ex segretario di De Girolamo, poi consigliere di De Luca, ora al fianco di Mastella |url=https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2019/07/13/campania-linversione-di-luigi-barone-ex-segretario-di-de-girolamo-poi-consigliere-di-de-luca-ora-al-fianco-di-mastella/5321706/ |access-date=8 April 2024 |website=Il Fatto Quotidiano |language=it}}</ref> On 3 June 2020, he left FI to create a regional list named Us Campanians (NC) in support of centre-left coalition incumbent president Vincenzo De Luca for his re-election campaign.<ref>{{cite web |date=18 July 2020 |title=Campania. Lady Mastella va con De Luca: si sospende da Forza Italia e se la prende col partito e la Lega |url=https://www.barbadillo.it/92209-campania-lady-mastella-va-con-de-luca-si-sospende-da-forza-italia-e-se-la-prende-col-partito-e-la-lega/ |access-date=8 April 2024 |website=Barbadillo |language=it}}</ref> In 2021, he was re-elected mayor of Benevento through civic lists.<ref name="Treccani 2011"/>
== Personal life == In 1975, Mastella married Sandra Lonardo, a native of Benevento whom he met during a visit to an uncle in Oyster Bay, New York, where she spent a good part of her youth. They have two son, Elio and Pellegrino.<ref>{{cite web |date=4 January 2022 |title=Clemente Mastella, con Sandra Lonardo l'amore nato negli Stati Uniti: i due figli Elio e Pellegrino |url=https://corrieredellumbria.corr.it/news/politica/29985374/clemente-mastella-chi-e-sandra-lonardo-moglie-amore-oyster-bay-stati-uniti-figli-elio-pellegrino |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221113202919/https://corrieredellumbria.corr.it/news/politica/29985374/clemente-mastella-chi-e-sandra-lonardo-moglie-amore-oyster-bay-stati-uniti-figli-elio-pellegrino.amp |archive-date=13 November 2022 |access-date=8 April 2024 |website=Corriere dell'Umbria}}</ref>
==Electoral history== {|class=wikitable style="width:65%; border:1px #AAAAFF solid" |- ! width=8%|Election ! width=20%|House ! width=35%|Constituency ! width=5% colspan="2"|Party ! width=10%|Votes ! width=15%|Result |- ! 1976 | Chamber of Deputies | Benevento–Avellino–Salerno | bgcolor="{{party color|Christian Democracy (Italy)}}" | | DC | 64,631 | {{tick|15}} '''Elected''' |- ! 1979 | Chamber of Deputies | Benevento–Avellino–Salerno | bgcolor="{{party color|Christian Democracy (Italy)}}" | | DC | 98,811 | {{tick|15}} '''Elected''' |- ! 1983 | Chamber of Deputies | Benevento–Avellino–Salerno | bgcolor="{{party color|Christian Democracy (Italy)}}" | | DC | 115,209 | {{tick|15}} '''Elected''' |- ! 1987 | Chamber of Deputies | Benevento–Avellino–Salerno | bgcolor="{{party color|Christian Democracy (Italy)}}" | | DC | 141,768 | {{tick|15}} '''Elected''' |- ! 1992 | Chamber of Deputies | Benevento–Avellino–Salerno | bgcolor="{{party color|Christian Democracy (Italy)}}" | | DC | 74,094 | {{tick|15}} '''Elected''' |- ! 1994 | Chamber of Deputies | Sant'Agata de' Goti | bgcolor="{{party color|Christian Democratic Centre}}" | | CCD | 17,011 | {{tick|15}} '''Elected''' |- ! 1996 | Chamber of Deputies | Campania 2 | bgcolor="{{party color|Christian Democratic Centre}}" | | CCD | –{{efn|name=fn1|Elected in a closed list proportional representation system.}} | {{tick|15}} '''Elected''' |- ! 1999 | European Parliament | Southern Italy | bgcolor="{{party color|Union of Democrats for Europe}}" | | UDEUR | 66,158 | {{tick|15}} '''Elected''' |- ! 2001 | Chamber of Deputies | Campania 2 | bgcolor="{{party color|Union of Democrats for Europe}}" | | UDEUR | –{{efn|name=fn1}} | {{tick|15}} '''Elected''' |- ! 2006 | Senate of the Republic | Calabria | bgcolor="{{party color|Union of Democrats for Europe}}" | | UDEUR | –{{efn|name=fn1}} | {{tick|15}} '''Elected''' |- ! 2009 | European Parliament | Southern Italy | bgcolor="{{party color|Union of Democrats for Europe}}" | | UDEUR{{efn|Elected within The People of Freedom (PdL) party list.}} | 113,061 | {{tick|15}} '''Elected''' |- ! 2014 | European Parliament | Southern Italy | bgcolor="{{party color|Forza Italia (2013)}}" | | FI | 60,395 | {{cross|15}} '''Not elected''' |- |} {{notelist}} Source: [https://elezionistorico.interno.gov.it/index.php?tpel=E&dtel=26/05/2019 Ministry of the Interior]
== References == {{reflist}}
== External links == * [https://web.archive.org/web/20060301204825/http://www.clementemastella.it/ Official website] * [https://clementemastella.blogspot.com/ Mastella's blog]
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{{ItalyProvincialCapitalMayors}} {{Berlusconi I Cabinet}} {{Prodi Cabinet}} {{authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Mastella, Clemente}} Category:1947 births Category:20th-century Italian politicians Category:Christian Democracy (Italy) politicians Category:Christian Democratic Centre politicians Category:Democratic Union for the Republic politicians Category:Ministers of justice of Italy Category:Living people Category:Mayors of Benevento Category:MEPs for Italy 2009–2014 Category:People from the Province of Benevento Category:Union of Democrats for Europe MEPs Category:Union of Democrats for Europe politicians