Flavio Delbono

Flavio Delbono (born 17 September 1959) is an Italian politician and economist. He served as the mayor of Bologna from 25 June 2009 until 28 January 2010, when he was forced to resign as he was being investigated for crimes such as embezzlement, fraud and aggravated abuse of office following allegations made by his former lover.

Biography

Delbono was born in Sabbioneta, a small town in the Province of Mantua in Lombardy. His father was a municipal policeman and his mother was a seamstress. and a D.Phil. from Linacre College, Oxford in 1988. While at Oxford, Delbono studied under the future Nobel laureate Amartya Sen.

Delbono joined the faculty of the Johns Hopkins University SAIS Bologna Center as an adjunct professor of international economics in 1987.

Political and administrative career From 1995 to 1999, Delbono served as an assessor for the city of Bologna with specific responsibility for the budget.

Primary campaign On 13 October 2008, Delbono announced his intention to stand in the Democratic Party primary election for mayor of Bologna. Delbono's candidacy was backed by several prominent figures in Bolognese politics, including: Sergio Cofferati, Pier Luigi Bersani, Renato Zangheri

The primary elections took place on 13 and 14 December 2008. Delbono received 49.73% of the 24,920 votes cast in the primary; Maurizio Cevenini received 23.29%, Virginio Merola received 21.44% and Andrea Forlani received 5.1%.

Campaign for mayor of Bologna On 9 January 2009, Delbono announced that he would be resigning as vice-president of Emilia-Romagna and regional assessor in order to focus on his election campaign. Maria Giuseppina Muzzarelli was announced as his successor as vice-president on 3 February. The mayoral election was held on 21 and 22 June; Delbono's opponents included Alfredo Cazzola, the candidate of The People of Freedom and Lega Nord, and the UDC's Giorgio Guazzaloca, a former mayor of Bologna. Delbono received 49.4% of the vote in the first round, forcing a second round against Cazzola, who had received 29.1%.

Scandal and resignation Delbono was forced to announce his resignation as mayor on 25 January 2010 following the revelation that he was being investigated for crimes such as embezzlement, fraud and aggravated abuse of office. The investigation followed Delbono's former assistant's claim that he had spent public money on her— the pair had been having an affair. Delbono denied all the allegations made against him and said that resigning as mayor was the right thing to do.

However, Bologna did not receive a mayor until 2011, and was ruled by a commissioner, Anna Maria Cancellieri.