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Guido Crosetto

Immagine dalla pubblicazione di Quotidiano Piemontese
From Quotidiano Piemontese, 2026-09-19

Guido Crosetto (Cuneo, 1963) is a Piedmontese entrepreneur and politician, Minister of Defence in the Meloni government since 22 October 2022.[1] Raised in a family of entrepreneurs from the province of Cuneo, he was mayor of Marene for fourteen years, then a member of parliament, undersecretary for Defence, co-founder of Fratelli d'Italia and president of the Confindustria federation for aerospace and defence companies.[1][2] He is one of the Piedmontese politicians who has risen highest in national institutions in recent decades.

From the Christian Democracy to the town hall of Marene

Crosetto developed the family business of agricultural machinery, later expanding into real estate and tourism.[1] He entered politics in the 1980s within the Christian Democracy party: from 1984 to 1990 he was regional secretary of the youth movement and national head of party training.[1][3] In 1988 he was economic advisor to Prime Minister Giovanni Goria, born in Asti and head of government between July 1987 and April 1988.[1][4]

In 1990 he was elected mayor of Marene with an independent list and remained in office until 2004; from 1999 to 2009 he also sat on the provincial council of Cuneo.[1][2] Marene is a municipality of about 3,300 inhabitants in the province of Cuneo, bordering Savigliano, Cavallermaggiore, Cervere and Cherasco.[5]

Member of Parliament and undersecretary

In 2001 he entered the Chamber of Deputies with Forza Italia, and was re-elected in 2006 and 2008 on centre-right lists, later those of the Popolo della Libertà.[1] In the fourth Berlusconi government he was undersecretary for Defence: according to Sky TG24 from 2008, according to Il Post between 2009 and 2011. It was his first contact with the ministry he would go on to lead eleven years later.[1][3][2]

In the autumn of 2012, while the Popolo della Libertà was debating whether to choose its candidate for prime minister through primaries, Crosetto put himself forward and, faced with repeated delays, told La Stampa that the primaries had become «the crybaby of Italian politics».[6] In mid-December, at the Auditorium Conciliazione in Rome, he organized with Giorgia Meloni the «primaries of ideas», which brought together the wing of the party opposed to a new candidacy by Silvio Berlusconi; the press photographed the moment when he lifted her up in his arms.[7]

The founding of Fratelli d'Italia

A few days later Crosetto, Meloni and Ignazio La Russa left the Popolo della Libertà to create Fratelli d'Italia - Centrodestra Nazionale, of which Crosetto was national coordinator.[8][9][1] In the 2013 general election the new party won nine seats in the Chamber.[8] In early March 2013, a few days after the vote, Corriere.it wrote that he had claimed a degree he never earned; he admitted having said so a few times and called it «a weakness», recounting that the president of the Piedmont Region, Roberto Cota, had offered him the vice-presidency to handle the regional budget and that, after he refused, he had been attacked by a Piedmontese newspaper.[10]

At the end of the summer of 2014 he left active politics to become president of AIAD, the Confindustria federation bringing together nearly two hundred aerospace, defence and security companies; he received no compensation for the role.[2]

Return to the Chamber and resignation

In 2018 he was elected to parliament for the fourth time, this time with Fratelli d'Italia.[1][2] On 28 December of that year he gave a widely praised speech in the Chamber against the decision of the government backed by the Movimento 5 Stelle and the Lega to tie a confidence vote to the budget law without genuine parliamentary review.[11]

«Rules exist so that no one can interpret them to their own advantage, and so that they apply to everyone.»

Guido Crosetto, speech to the Chamber of Deputies, 28 December 2018

He had, however, already decided to devote himself to AIAD. His resignation, announced in May 2018 and initially rejected in October, following the custom by which the Chamber always denies the first request, was accepted on 13 March 2019 with 231 votes in favour; Crosetto remained the party's coordinator.[12] In 2020 he was appointed president of Orizzonte Sistemi Navali, a joint venture between Leonardo and Fincantieri for naval defence systems.[2]

Minister of Defence

After the centre-right's victory in the September 2022 election, in which Fratelli d'Italia became the leading party with about 26 percent, Crosetto was sworn in as Minister of Defence on 22 October 2022.[8][2] The appointment immediately sparked debate over a potential conflict of interest, given his roles in the defence industry; he left AIAD and Orizzonte Sistemi Navali, announced that he would put his consulting firm up for sale, saying he had ninety days to do so, and declared: «I have given up every position, as the law requires, and I will go even further, withdrawing from companies where I could have stayed».[2]

At the ministry he has dealt with the Middle East crises also on the naval front. On 8 November 2023 the ship Vulcano, equipped with operating theatres and carrying more than 170 people, left Civitavecchia bound for the Gaza Strip to provide medical aid to Palestinian civilians.[13] In 2024 Italy took over operational command of the European Aspides mission in the Red Sea, with the destroyer Caio Duilio, which on 2 March shot down a drone heading toward the ship.[14] In July 2023, in an interview with the Corriere della Sera, he described the Conte government's decision to join China's Belt and Road Initiative as «a rash and reckless act».[15]

In February 2025 his name was used in a scam: using a synthetic voice imitating his, unknown individuals asked major entrepreneurs to wire money to foreign accounts to free supposed Italian journalists allegedly kidnapped in Iran and Syria; Crosetto reported the matter to the carabinieri and warned the public on social media.[16]

Positions and the present

In the autumn of 2025, after a video of fascist chants at the Fratelli d'Italia headquarters in Parma was circulated, he was the party figure who distanced himself most firmly: «The fascist chants in Parma speak for themselves. They have nothing to do with Fratelli d'Italia, those people should be kicked out and sent away».[17]

In 2026 he clashed within the government with Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti over the use of the 14.9 billion euros in European loans under the SAFE programme, which he wanted to allocate entirely to new military investments.[18] His direct communication style, which he justifies as necessary for whoever leads Defence to always prepare for the worst, has been discussed by the press, for example after a parliamentary briefing on the Sigonella and Aviano bases and some remarks about the risk of escalation with Iran.[19] In August 2026 he appointed former Ukrainian Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov as innovation advisor, drawing on Ukraine's experience in drone warfare.[20] On 24 September 2026, commenting on reports from the Spanish newspaper El Mundo about possible Russian attacks against Italy, France and Spain, he said there was no confirmation and that «no one needs more fuel added to the fire».[21] In 2025 he published the autobiography Storie di un ragazzo di provincia.[1]

Pages linking here

Sources

  1. Treccani
  2. Il Post — 23 October 2022
  3. Sky TG24
  4. Treccani
  5. Comune di Marene
  6. Il Post — 5 December 2012
  7. Il Post — 17 December 2012
  8. Treccani
  9. Il Post — 23 December 2012
  10. Il Post — 2 March 2013
  11. Il Post — 29 December 2018
  12. Il Post — 14 March 2019
  13. Il Post — 8 November 2023
  14. Il Post — 4 March 2024
  15. Il Post — 30 July 2023
  16. Il Post — 8 February 2025
  17. Il Post — 1 November 2025
  18. Il Post — 29 May 2026
  19. Il Post — 8 April 2026
  20. Il Post — 28 August 2026
  21. Il Post — 24 September 2026

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