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novembro 15, 2004

High-profile Frattini keeps his private life from public scrutiny

Fonte: The Times

High-profile Frattini keeps his private life from public scrutiny
By Richard Owen



Rome: The trenchant views of Rocco Buttiglione on homosexuals and single mothers cost him high office at the European Commission. The views on such issues of Franco Frattini, the man chosen to replace him, are a closely guarded secret.

Blessed with good looks and sporting ability — he is a qualified ski-instructor — Signor Frattini, 47, is one of Italy’s most visible politicians. Yet little is known about his private life and views.



Few Italians are aware that Signor Frattini, the Foreign Minister, is divorced, with a 14-year-old daughter. As he is usually alone when he attends official functions in Rome, there was surprise when Vanity Fair suggested that his companion for the past three years was Simona Ingaglio, a model.

Signora Ingaglio, 32, said in an interview in the magazine that she had decided to “emerge from anonimity”, having become “tired of being described as the unknown young woman at his side”, but that they had not yet discussed marriage.

Signor Frattini has said that skiing taught him “how to control emotions”, as well as how to slalom through the political obstacle course. “If you can manage the fear at the starting line before a race then you can handle any political challenge,” he once said.

Born in Rome to Tuscan parents (his father was a poetry professor) Signor Frattini studied law and became a magistrate at the age of 24. Left wing as a student, he turned to the Right, becoming an adviser to the Treasury and secretary to the Council of Ministers, then an aide to Silvio Berlusconi whose Forza Italia party he joined in 1996, when he entered Parliament.

Signor Frattini was chairman of the parliamentary commission for intelligence services from 1996 to 2001 and was made Minister of Public Administration and Foreign Minister in 2002.He is a “committed European”, arguing that Europe must “speak with a single voice”.


Publicado por esta às novembro 15, 2004 12:45 PM