Policy

Irene Pivetti: from the youngest president of the Chamber to conviction for tax evasion

From youthful political leadership to judicial decline, Irene Pivetti's parable traverses institutional successes, party changes and significant criminal charges.

10 December 2025

2' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

2' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Irene Pivetti, Italian politician, television presenter and journalist, was born in Milan on 4 April 1963. a first hour Lega Nord politician, she was elected MP and President of the Chamber of Deputies in 1994, with the first centre-right government led by Silvio Berlusconi. She then switched to the UDEUR and remained Parliamentarian until 2001.

From 1990 to 1994, she was responsible for the Catholic Council of the Lombard League.

On 15 April 1994 she was elected President of the Chamber of Deputies on the fourth ballot, becoming at only 31 years of age the youngest President of the Chamber in Italian history and the second woman after Nilde Iotti (elected in 1979). She obtained 347 votes (38 more than the quorum) from the deputies of Forza Italia, Alleanza Nazionale, Lega Nord and Centro Cristiano Democratico.

He held office throughout the legislature.

In the 1996 parliamentary elections, she was re-elected as a deputy for the Northern League, and was re-proposed for the third office of State, not regaining the support of the Pole (which preferred to nominate former vice-president and minister Poli Bortone). In the ballots that led to the election of Luciano Violante, previously her vice-president, she obtained between 49 and 57 votes.

On 12 September 1996, she was expelled from the League for her opposition to the line of secession in the Po Valley: the Agepadania justified the decision by stating that it was taken 'out of blatant conflict with the political lines of the Movement and its secretary'.

On 22 October 1996, she founded the Italia Federale movement, which in 1998 merged first into Rinnovamento Italiano and then into UDEUR (4 March 1999), a party of which Pivetti was president from 23 May 1999 until 2002.

On 27 May 2018, he founded the centre-right political party Italia Madre, which has Europeanism as its ideology.

In the 2019 European elections, Irene Pivetti ran in the lists of Forza Italia in the North East Italy constituency and obtained 9,191 preferences, placing second behind Silvio Berlusconi, without being elected.

Irene Pivetti beyond politics

After abandoning political activity, she was author and presenter, on LA7, of the programmes Fa' la cosa giusta and La giuria (2002-2003). A TV Oscar winner in 2004, she hosted a number of programmes on the Mediaset networks (Bisturi! Nessuno è perfetto and Giallo 1), of which she is also author, before collaborating in 2005 on Maurizio Costanzo's programme Buona Domenica and again taking on the role of host of the weekly political talk show on Rete 4 Liberitutti.

The judicial vicissitudes of Irene Pivetti

On 18 November 2021, the Milan Public Prosecutor's Office ordered the Guardia di Finanza to seize approximately EUR 3.5 million from Irene Pivetti as part of an investigation into a series of business transactions that, according to the indictment, were used to launder the proceeds of tax evasion.

On 26 September 2024, she was sentenced in first instance to four years' imprisonment for tax evasion and self-laundering in relation to the case of the alleged fake sale to a Chinese company of the three Ferraris of Isolani's Racing Team with Pivetti's company allegedly acting as intermediary.

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