Claudio Martelli

Claudio Martelli (born 24 September 1943) is an Italian former politician and journalist. He is the editor-in-chief of the former Italian Socialist Party (PSI) newspaper Avanti! The right-hand man of Bettino Craxi, the PSI leader and Prime Minister of Italy from 1983 to 1987, Martelli was Deputy Prime Minister of Italy from 1989 to 1992 and Minister of Justice from 1991 to 1993, when he was implicated in the Tangentopoli scandal and left politics.

Martelli returned to politics in 1997 and re-founded Mondoperaio, a PSI-affiliated cultural magazine, and joined the Italian Democratic Socialists (SDI), becoming in 1999 a Member of the European Parliament (MEP), a position he first held with the PSI between 1984 and 1989. In 2001, he joined the centre-right coalition-affiliated New Italian Socialist Party (NPSI) and unsuccessfully ran for the Chamber of Deputies, a position he also held with the PSI from 1979 to 1994.

After again ending his party politics career in 2005, Martelli became a television presenter and re-launched Avanti!

Early life and education Martelli was born at Gessate, in the province of Milan. He graduated in Philosophy at the University of Milan and later worked there as an assistant for the faculty of Letters and Philosophy of the same university. Martelli ended his academic career in 1976 to focus on politics. During Tangentopoli, he ran for the party leadership after the resignation of Craxi, who was accused of corruption. His candidacy was blown off by his involvement in the 7 million dollar bribe in 1980, and he resigned as Minister of Justice.

Martelli exited the political world to deal with his judicial cases. In 1997, after concluding his legal battles, he founded Mondoperaio (former magazine of the PSI). In the same year, he was elected to the European Parliament for the SDI. In 2000, he left the SDI and joined the NPSI. He became spokesman for the party but was not elected to the Italian Parliament in 2001 and left the party in 2005. That same year, for a second time, he left party politics and became a presenter of several television programs. On 1 May 2020, he brought back Avanti! to the newsstands. According to court documents, Roberto Calvi paid bribes to Martelli during the Banco Ambrosiano affair; however, he was not convicted in this case. His name was again brought to the attention of the judicial chronicles as part of the State-Mafia Pact trial, when the ex Cosa nostra killer Francesco Onorato told of the start of the strategy of the massacres prepared by Totò Riina after the sentence of the trial. He said: "In the list of people to kill, as I learned from Salvatore Biondino, the ambassador of the commission, there were Lima, Andreotti and his son, the former ministers Mannino, Vizzini, but also Martelli. We were the ones who had Martelli elected as minister of Justice: in 1987 we had financed his electoral campaign with ₤200 million. And then Martelli kept his promises, because he gave to some members of the mafia the hospital arrests."

Personal life In 2022, Martelli married Lia Quartapelle, a deputy from the Democratic Party.

Electoral history ElectionHouseConstituencyPartyVotesResult 1979 Chamber of Deputies Mantua–Cremona PSI 14,813 Elected 1983 Chamber of Deputies Mantua–Cremona PSI 18,905 Elected 1984 European Parliament Central Italy PSI 255,249 Elected 1987 Chamber of Deputies Palermo–Trapani–Agrigento–Caltanissetta PSI 116,984 Elected 1992 Chamber of Deputies Mantua–Cremona PSI 27,003 Elected 1999 European Parliament Central Italy SDI 35,827 Elected