Nichi Vendola

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Nichi Vendola, 2004.

Nicola (Nichi) Vendola (born 26 August 1958), is an Italian politician and the president of Apulia region (he refused in fact to use in public the title of governor, commonly attributed to former tenants of the post).

[edit] Life

Born in Terlizzi, province of Bari, Vendola was a member of the Communists Youth Federation since the age of 14, he studied literature in university, presenting a dissertation about the controversial poet and movie director Pier Paolo Pasolini. He then went on to become a journalist for L'Unità, and a leading member of the Italian gay organisation Arcigay.

A member of the National Secretariat of the Italian Communist Party, he fiercely opposed the dissolution of the party proposed by Achille Occhetto in 1991 and joined the Communist Refoundation Party.

In 1992 he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies and has held his seat ever since. As of Anti-Mafia Commissioner, he came to prominence as a strong opponent of organised crime.

In 2005 he ran for the first primary election ever held in Italy, called to choose the left-wing L'Unione alliance's candidate for the presidency of the Puglia region. To the surprise of many, he won the primary over the rival Francesco Boccia. Many moderates in the alliance criticised the choice, since it appeared impossible that a communist, and even worse a homosexual, could be elected president of a southern Italian region such as Apulia, generally considered to be conservative and strongly Catholic. Vendola, though, declares himself as "believer" (in the line of Pax Christi): he once said that "the most important book for a communist like me is the Bible".

In the regional election in Puglia, held in April 2005, he narrowly defeated the outgoing president Raffaele Fitto, candidate for House of Freedoms, thus becoming the first member of the Communist Refoundation Party to be elected as president of any Italian region.

Vendola is also a poet: some of his poems have been collected in a book, named L'ultimo mare ("The last sea"). His figure has inspired a biographical film, Nichi.