Giuliano Ferrara

Giuliano Ferrara (born 7 January 1952) is an Italian politician, journalist, founding editor of Il Foglio, and TV presenter.

Giuliano Ferrara
Minister for Parliamentary Relations
In office 10 May 1994 – 17 January 1995
Prime Minister	Silvio Berlusconi
Preceded by	Paolo Barile
Succeeded by	Guglielmo Negri
Personal details
Born	Giuliano Ferrara 7 January 1952 Rome, Italy
Political party	Italian Communist Party (1973–1989) Italian Socialist Party (1989–1994) Forza Italia (1994–2008)
Height	1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Spouse(s)	Anselma Dell'Olio (1987–present)
Occupation	Journalist, politician (formerly)

Life and career

Ferrara came from a family of Communists: his father Maurizio was a communist senator. Ferrara was active in the Italian Communist Party during his twenties. In 1982, he broke with the party and became vocal as an ex-Communist. Influenced by the political philosopher Leo Strauss, he initially gravitated toward socialism, but later moved toward social conservatism. He was in the Berlusconi I Cabinet and founded the newspaper Il Foglio.

He has been one of the strongest supporters of Pope Benedict XVI. Although considered by his opponents a "devout atheist", he now considers himself a theist. [1] He is married to writer Anselma Dell'Olio, who fought for woman's rights in the feminist movements during the 1960s and 1970s.

Legal problems

In 2003, Antonio Tabucchi wrote an article about bad facts about Giuliano Ferrara for the French newspaper Le Monde, but the article was never published because Giuliano Ferrara interfered with them publishing it on its own newspaper Il Foglio. He then said that he was happy to have reached the goal to get that article before Le Monde newspaper. He was condemned for unauthorized publishing and for copyright infringement.[2]

Political positions

Abortion

In 1989, Ferrara used the pages of Corriere della Sera to criticize what he perceived as a decline in male responsibility following the introduction of the first abortion pills.[3]

In 2008, he ran in the Italian general election on a platform favouring a moratorium on abortion, as part of a theoconservative Italian political current of which he is one of the most prominent leaders. These views might seem surprising as during his Communist period by his own acknowledgement three of his partners had abortions.[4]

Europe's Christian roots

Ferrara agrees with the Catholic Church regarding the defence of the Judeo-Christian roots of Europe.

References

1. "Nè ateo nè devoto" [Neither atheist nor devout]. tempi.it (in Italian). 26 April 2007. Archived from the original on 6 October 2007. Retrieved 1 November 2016. In realtà io ateo non sono, la mia è una posizione teista. Io non ho una fede personale, non ho questo dono, questa grazia soprannaturale e non ho una confessione praticata e osservante. [...] Io ho una posizione che praticamente è quella richiamata da Ratzinger parafrasando Ugo Grozio: quella di vivere come se Dio esistesse. [Actually I'm not an atheist, I have a theist view. I do not have a personal faith, I don't have this gift, this supernatural grace and I do not follow nor observe any confession (...) My position is the one Joseph Ratzinger cited paraphrasing Hugo Grotius: I live as if God existed]
2. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-02-19. Retrieved 2015-03-27.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
3. Giuliano Ferrara (5 November 1989). "Maschio sempre più irresponsabile con la nuova "pillola" per abortire". Corriere della Sera.
4. The New York Times

External links

• Articles written on Panorama (in Italian)