US embassy cable - 04ROME2876

UNCLAS ROME 002876 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PINR, PGOV, IT, ITALIAN POLITICS 
SUBJECT:  ITALY:  ROBERTO CALDEROLI NEW MINISTER FOR REFORMS 
 
REF:  A) ROME 2836, B) ROME 2815, C) MILAN 270, 
-     D) MILAN 220 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED; NOT FOR INTERNET DISTRIBUTION. 
 
1.  (SBU)  SUMMARY AND COMMENT:  As expected, Prime Minister 
Berlusconi named Northern League National Coordinator and 
Senate Vice President Roberto Calderoli the new Minister for 
Reform and Devolution on July 20.  Calderoli replaces League 
Secretary Umberto Bossi, who resigned the previous day to 
 
SIPDIS 
assume the seat in the European Parliament to which he was 
elected in June.  Calderoli has been a League firebrand who 
has not always exercised even the minimal rhetorical control 
exhibited by the outspoken Bossi.  Since his appointment as 
Minister, however, he has shown some restraint.  Neither 
this appointment, nor the sum total of new ministers (two so 
far -- Calderoli and Domenico Sinicalco as Finance Minister 
(Ref A), with a third coming to replace Rocco Buttiglione, 
just named Italy's EU Commissioner, as Minister for EU 
Policies) constitute a major reshuffle, nor do they ease 
significantly the governing coalition's internal tensions, 
as they essentially maintain the status quo.  END SUMMARY 
AND COMMENT. 
 
2.  (U)  Roberto Calderoli was appointed Minister for Reform 
and Devolution in Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's center- 
right government on July 20, 2004.  He replaced Northern 
League leader Umberto Bossi, who resigned on July 19 as a 
result of a long illness and hospitalization following a 
massive heart attack.  (Refs B, D) 
 
3.  (U)  Calderoli was elected to the Senate in May 2001 
with the Northern League and appointed Senate Vice President 
the following June, a position from which he resigned to 
join PM Berlusconi's cabinet.  Calderoli is also Northern 
League National Coordinator and will likely retain this 
position even during his government tenure.  He is a member 
of the Senate Defense Committee and of the Joint 
Parliamentary Commission investigating the 1997 sale to 
Italy of a stake of Serbia's national telecommunication 
company, Telekom Serbia, during the Milosevic regime. 
Calderoli was a member of the Chamber of Deputies from 1992- 
2001, winning a seat for the Northern League in the national 
elections of 1992, 1994, and 1996, and was active in the 
Chamber's Social Affairs Committee. 
 
4.  (U)  In 2003, Calderoli was the Northern League's 
representative and one of the governing coalition's four 
"wise men" during a five-day retreat to craft the 
government's draft law on constitutional reform and 
devolution.  This draft law is currently being examined by 
the Chamber of Deputies; the Berlusconi Government has said 
the reform would be passed in 2004. 
 
5.  (SBU)  Calderoli is devoted to Bossi and 
organizationally astute, regarded by many as a natural 
replacement to carry through to completion the Northern 
League's dream of devolution.  As National Secretary of the 
Northern League/Lombard League 1995-2001, and party 
President 1993-95, Calderoli was a sort of "alter ego" to 
Umberto Bossi.  He remains close to Bossi's wife, who wields 
considerable party influence herself, during the party 
leader's convalescence.  (Ref D) 
 
6.  (SBU)  Although he has been active in politics only 
since the 1990s -- in the early 90s, he was City Councilor 
in his hometown of Bergamo -- Calderoli has Northern League 
grassroots politics in his blood.  His grandfather, Guido, 
founded an autonomist movement in the family's northern 
hometown and would make derogatory declamations against 
Italy's center and south.  Roberto Calderoli also has spoken 
out provocatively on a number of political issues.  While 
his friend and mentor Bossi has tended to reserve his 
inflammatory speeches for League rallies in its northern 
strongholds -- at least during the party's second experience 
in government -- Calderoli has not consistently exercised 
such restraint.  The sometimes-impulsive Calderoli is 
balanced by other League leaders, such as the more studied 
Minister of Labor Roberto Maroni.  (Ref C) 
 
7.  (U)  A doctor specialized in facial surgery, Calderoli 
followed a family tradition: his grandfather, father, four 
uncles and three of his seven brothers are dentists and are 
commonly regarded as the best in Bergamo.  He was born in 
Bergamo on April 18, 1956.  He was a motorcycle racer during 
the 1970s-80s, competing and winning regional rallies.  He 
is married.  His English level is not known. 
SEMBLER 
 
 
NNNN 
	2004ROME02876 - Classification: UNCLASSIFIED