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Alberto Cirio

An Italian politician born in Turin in 1972 and raised in Alba, president of the Piedmont Region since 2019, re-elected in 2024.

Alberto Cirio (Turin, 1972) is an Italian politician, president of the Regione Piemonte since 2019. Politically raised in Alba, in the Langhe, he was a regional councillor, a Member of the European Parliament and then the centre-right's candidate to lead Piedmont: elected in 2019 against the outgoing president, he was confirmed in 2024, the first case in a quarter of a century of an outgoing coalition being re-elected in the region.[1][2]

From Alba to Strasbourg

Born in Turin in 1972, Cirio entered politics in the early 1990s with the Lega, which took him onto the Alba city council; he later moved to Forza Italia and also served as deputy mayor of Alba.[1] From 2005 he sat for two terms in the Consiglio regionale del Piemonte, until 2014.[1][3] In those years he was also regional minister for tourism: in July 2012, in New York, the department he led organised an evening at the Enit headquarters to promote Piedmont with Arturo Brachetti, the first step in a series of collaborations with Piedmontese ambassadors including Giorgetto Giugiaro.[4]

In 2014 he was elected to the European Parliament and left his role in the region.[1] On the eve of the 2019 regional election he was still little known to the wider public: according to an Ipsos poll from April of that year, 57 per cent of respondents did not know who he was, and polling put the race as almost even with his opponent.[1]

The 2019 election

In the regional election of 26 May 2019, running for the centre-right, Cirio won over 50 per cent of the vote, about thirteen points ahead of the outgoing president Sergio Chiamparino, a former mayor of Turin, who stood at around 37 per cent; the Movimento 5 Stelle challenger was Giorgio Bertola. Chiamparino acknowledged a «clear defeat» while the count was still under way.[3]

His first term

His first term was marked by the pandemic. In November 2020 Cirio put forward a bill, approved by the regional executive and brought before the regional council, to tax large e-commerce companies with global revenues of at least 750 million euros: a 15 per cent rate instead of 3 per cent, rising to 30 per cent during lockdowns, with the extra revenue earmarked for small businesses hit by the closures. The aim was to turn it into a national proposal with the backing of at least four other regional councils.[5]

On the industrial front, in 2022 the Region put forward a former Eni and Pirelli site between Volpiano and Settimo Torinese for the large microchip plant that Intel wanted to build in Italy, in competition with Veneto; the Draghi government left the choice to its successor.[6]

In October 2022 Cirio received from the building site the Region's skyscraper, designed by Massimiliano Fuksas, 205 metres tall with 44 floors, meant to bring together more than two thousand employees scattered across ten offices. On that occasion he announced its name:[7]

«It will be called Grattacielo Piemonte, since this building was paid for by the people of Piedmont»

Alberto Cirio, handover of the skyscraper, October 2022

According to the president, the new headquarters would save the Region between 15 and 18 million euros a year.[7] More controversial was the ban on Euro 5 diesel vehicles in 76 Piedmontese municipalities, a measure tied to European requirements on air quality and strongly contested, especially by centre-right parties: originally set for 15 September 2023, it was postponed to 1 October 2024 by a decree-law of the Council of Ministers.[8]

Re-election and second term

In the regional election of June 2024, Cirio, of Forza Italia, was re-elected with about 56 per cent of the vote against 33.5 per cent for Gianna Pentenero of the centre-left, 7.7 per cent for Sarah Disabato of the Movimento 5 Stelle and 1.5 per cent for Francesca Frediani.[2]

In July 2024 he signed a 15-million-euro agreement with the Ministries of Tourism and Culture for the Basilica di Superga, covering restoration, accessibility and a new museum route.[9] Presenting it, he said:

«Superga is one of the symbolic places of Turin, because it looks down on the city and preserves the memory of some fundamental events in its history, starting with the Grande Torino»

Alberto Cirio, July 2024

With Stellantis production sharply down at Mirafiori, in September 2024 the Region looked for a Chinese manufacturer to offer a disused plant to: among the sites put forward were the former Maserati plant in Grugliasco and the former Olivetti plant in Scarmagno. «There is interest from China, believe me», Cirio said.[10] In April 2026 he announced that, from 20 April, the Asti–Cuneo motorway would be usable along both carriageways for its entire length, linking the project to the Tenda, Fréjus and Mont Blanc tunnel works.[11]

His ties to Alba and the Langhe remain part of his political vocabulary: when Carlo Petrini, founder of Slow Food, died in May 2026, Cirio said farewell to «an extraordinary man who changed the agricultural culture of our country and of the whole world».[12] In July 2026, at a Forza Italia congress in Genoa, he said he saw no values in common between the centre-right and Roberto Vannacci.[13]

Artificial intelligence and the car tax

On 17 September 2026, at a press conference in Turin with the minister for Public Administration Paolo Zangrillo, Cirio presented Auxil.ia Piemonte, a generative artificial-intelligence platform developed by the public consortium CSI Piemonte for local authorities: customised assistants for the various administrations, linked both to models hosted on the regional cloud and to commercial models, in line with AgID guidelines and the European Union's AI regulation. The president called it the first system of its kind built by an Italian region for public administration.[14][15]

The same day, at the Museo Nazionale dell'Automobile, he announced that from 2027, once cleared by the Council of Ministers, the circulation tax (bollo) will no longer be due on cars up to 80 kW and on motorcycles: about 1.64 million Piedmontese exempted, more than 809,000 of them in the province of Turin, with estimated savings of over 170 million euros, covered by the State.[16][17]

«A car is not a luxury. It is a basic necessity, needed to live and work, and, like a home, it should not be taxed.»

Alberto Cirio, 17 September 2026

Legal proceedings

As a regional councillor Cirio was investigated for embezzlement in the Turin inquiry known as «Rimborsopoli bis», over reimbursements paid to regional council groups in 2008–2010; on 29 August 2019 his case was closed with no charges, together with those of 27 other former councillors.[19] In February 2021 he was investigated in the Turin prosecutor's inquiry into air pollution,[20] but by the close of the investigation, in July 2023, his name no longer appeared among those involved.[21]

Support for Confesercenti's bill on local shops (September 2026)

On 25 September 2026 Alberto Cirio signed, as a private citizen, the popular-initiative bill promoted by Confesercenti in support of local neighbourhood shops. On 30 September the Consiglio regionale del Piemonte approved a motion backing the initiative.

Remarks on a possible military conversion of Iveco (September 2026)

On 30 September 2026, interviewed on stage in Alba at a La Stampa event, Cirio said he would not be shocked if Iveco were to switch to producing military vehicles, in the context of the crisis in the car industry.

Timeline

  • — The Regione Piemonte presents Auxil.ia, a generative artificial-intelligence platform developed by CSI Piemonte to provide customised digital assistants to municipalities and public bodies. CronacaQui Torino ANSA Piemonte
  • — The Regione Piemonte announces that from 2027 more than 1.6 million Piedmontese, one driver in two, will no longer pay the car tax (bollo) on vehicles under 80 kW. → Quotidiano Piemontese La Stampa
  • — The Consiglio regionale del Piemonte approves a motion backing Confesercenti's popular-initiative bill for local neighbourhood shops, signed on 25 September as a private citizen by the Region's president, Alberto Cirio. → TorinoOggi CronacaQui Torino
  • — The president of the Regione Piemonte, Alberto Cirio, interviewed on stage in Alba at a La Stampa event, says he would not be shocked if Iveco were to switch to producing military vehicles, in the context of the crisis in the car industry. → ANSA Piemonte La Stampa

Related articles: Announcement of Car Tax Exemption in Piedmont for 2027, Auxil.ia, Auxil.ia, artificial intelligence platform of the Piedmont Region (September 2026), CSI Piemonte, Piemonte Tu, The Regional Council's motion on neighbourhood shops

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Sources

  1. Il Post — 21 May 2019
  2. Il Post — 10 June 2024
  3. Il Post — 27 May 2019
  4. Famiglia Cristiana — 17 July 2012
  5. Il Post — 24 November 2020
  6. Il Post — 4 October 2022
  7. Cuneo24 — 14 October 2022
  8. Il Post — 7 September 2023
  9. Regione Piemonte – Piemonte Informa — 11 July 2024
  10. Il Post — 13 September 2024
  11. Gazzetta d'Alba — 9 April 2026
  12. Gazzetta d'Alba — 22 May 2026
  13. Gazzetta d'Alba — 5 July 2026
  14. ANSA Piemonte — 17 September 2026
  15. Torino Cronaca — 17 September 2026
  16. Quotidiano Piemontese — 17 September 2026
  17. La Stampa — 17 September 2026
  18. ANSA Piemonte — 13 February 2019
  19. Il Fatto Quotidiano — 29 August 2019
  20. ANSA Piemonte — 19 February 2021
  21. il Giornale — 21 July 2023
  22. TorinoOggi — 25 September 2026
  23. CronacaQui Torino — 30 September 2026
  24. Il Torinese — 30 September 2026
  25. ANSA Piemonte — 30 September 2026
  26. La Stampa — 30 September 2026

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