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Sergio Chiamparino

Politician born in Moncalieri in 1948, mayor of Turin from 2001 to 2011, during the years of the 2006 Olympics, and president of the Piedmont Region from 2014 to 2019.

Image from the Il Post publication
From Il Post, 2019-05-21

Sergio Chiamparino (Moncalieri, 1948) is an Italian politician, mayor of Turin from 2001 to 2011 and president of the Piedmont Region from 2014 to 2019. His decade at the Palazzo Civico spans the years of the 2006 Winter Olympics; as head of the Region he backed the Turin-Lyon high-speed line, to which in 2018 he devoted a book written with Piero Fassino.[1][2]

From the trade union to Parliament

Born into a working-class family in Moncalieri, he graduated in Political Science and worked as a researcher at the Faculty of Political Science.[1][2] His political formation ran through the Communist Party and the CGIL union: he began local political activity in 1975, was regional secretary of the union between 1989 and 1991 and then, from 1991 to 1995, Turin provincial secretary of the PDS.[1][2] He was also a European official; in 1996 he entered the Chamber of Deputies in the 13th legislature, elected on the PDS lists.[1][2]

Mayor of Turin (2001-2011)

Elected mayor in 2001 at the head of the centre-left, he was confirmed in 2006 with 66 percent of the vote.[1] His first term was dominated by preparations for the Winter Olympic Games of February 2006. A few hours before the opening ceremony the mayor sought to reassure those who feared the event would alter the reserved character of Turin's people:[3]

"It's not that because we have the Olympics we have to become Naples. We will remain Turin."

Sergio Chiamparino, February 2006

Years later, the newspaper Domani pointed to that phrase as the key to the Games' success: a city that hosts the world without changing its nature.[3]

In 2005, when the old Torino Calcio was on the verge of bankruptcy, it was Chiamparino who called publisher Urbano Cairo, who took over the granata club, Torino Football Club: "He called me because he was worried about how Toro's situation would evolve, because the club was going bankrupt," Cairo himself recounted.[4]

From 2009 to 2011 he was also president of ANCI, the National Association of Italian Municipalities.[1] He took a firm stand in favour of the high-speed line to France, opposed by the No TAV movement in the Susa Valley: in June 2011, having recently left the Comune, after events in the valley he urged Nichi Vendola and Antonio Di Pietro in an interview with Repubblica to choose "between growth or a return to the nineteenth century."[5]

The succession and the Compagnia di San Paolo

At the end of his second term he took part in choosing his successor. After first proposing the rector of the Politecnico, Francesco Profumo, who then withdrew, he hoped "that the conditions arise for a candidacy by Piero Fassino."[6] At the end of February 2011 Fassino won the centre-left primaries; Chiamparino did not show up on the day of the victory and explained his absence to journalists like this:[7]

"I'm like the old elephants, who when it's the end move away from the herd."

Sergio Chiamparino, February 2011

In May 2012, a year after leaving the Comune, he became president of the Compagnia di San Paolo, a Turin banking foundation; the appointment fuelled debate on the "revolving doors" between politics and foundations.[8] His name also circulated in Rome: in April 2013, during Parliament's votes for the President of the Republic, he obtained 41 votes on the first ballot, largely from MPs close to Matteo Renzi, and 90 on the second.[9]

President of the Region (2014-2019)

On 11 January 2014 he announced his candidacy for the presidency of Piedmont and his resignation from the Compagnia, effective 3 February.[8] In the May regional elections he was elected with 47.09 percent of the vote.[10] On 10 June he presented the new regional government, with Aldo Reschigna as vice-president in charge of the budget.[11]

The term began under the threat of a new vote. On 10 July 2014 Lega councillor Patrizia Borgarello filed an appeal against the signatures collected for the "Chiamparino Presidente" list, alleging signatures in the same handwriting and without document numbers; the regional administrative court (TAR) upheld the appeal. In February 2015 Chiamparino said he was ready to resign: "Either on 9 July there is a clear word, or I am ready to give the word back to the voters." When the administrative court said the decision might be postponed pending the criminal trial, he declared himself willing to wait.[12]

During his years in the Region he was present at several symbolic moments for the city. On 27 September 2018, at the reopening of Guarino Guarini's Chapel of the Holy Shroud, after restoration following the 1997 fire, he said: "For 20 years skilled hands, stone by stone, have rebuilt this masterpiece of Italian culture."[13] In May 2019, on the eve of the Turin Book Fair, together with mayor Chiara Appendino he reported the founder of the Altaforte publishing house, Francesco Polacchi, for glorifying fascism[14], and together with the Comune asked for the publisher's contract with the fair to be terminated: "It is a political choice for which we take full responsibility."[15]

On the Turin-Lyon line, called back into question by the Lega-M5S government, he said he favoured a regional consultative referendum[16] and on 12 March 2019 wrote to the Interior Minister Matteo Salvini asking for Piedmontese people to vote on the project on 26 May, together with regional and European elections; Salvini and Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said no within a few hours.[17] In 2018 he had published the book TAV. Perché sì ("High-speed rail. Why yes").[1]

The 2019 defeat

In the regional elections of 26 May 2019 he ran again for the PD and the centre-left, with an experience and a renown that, according to Il Post, made him "one of the most famous Piedmontese politicians."[2] He was defeated by the centre-right candidate Alberto Cirio, who topped 50 percent against his roughly 37; Chiamparino conceded defeat, congratulating the winner.[10] His books include Semplicemente sindaco ("Simply mayor", 2006), La sfida ("The challenge", 2010) and Cordata con sindaco ("Roped together with the mayor", 2011).[1]

Pages linking here

Related articles: Alberto Cirio, Cappella della Sindone, Guarino Guarini, No TAV Movement, Olimpiadi invernali di Torino 2006, Turin Cathedral

Sources

  1. Treccani
  2. Il Post — 21 May 2019
  3. Domani — 6 February 2026
  4. Calcio e Finanza — 2 December 2024
  5. Il Post — 28 June 2011
  6. Il Post — 29 November 2010
  7. Il Post — 28 February 2011
  8. Il Post (Francesco Maggio) — 24 January 2014
  9. Il Post — 18 April 2013
  10. Il Post — 27 May 2019
  11. Il Post — 10 June 2014
  12. Il Post — 20 March 2015
  13. ANSA — 27 September 2018
  14. Il Post — 23 January 2020
  15. ilLibraio.it — 8 May 2019
  16. Il Post — 11 January 2019
  17. Il Post — 12 March 2019

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