Orlando, the former 'young communist' who wants to take Liguria back to the left

He has renounced his candidature for the European elections because the political battle that interests him is the one that will take place at the end of October for the after-Toti: this is how Andrea Orlando, candidate of a 'wide field' for the centre-left in the regional elections at the end of October, takes his political commitment back to where his long career began. The Liguria, his home region. 'Ligurians, head held high' is the claim he chose for his election campaign.

Born in La Spezia, class of 1969, scientific high school, Orlando made his debut in 1989, the last year of the PCI: in that year he was provincial secretary of the FGCI, the federation of young communists. In 1990, he took on the first of a series of posts in the institutions that would lead him to be a minister three times: that year he was read as a municipal councillor in his city with the PCI. A post he held, later becoming group leader in the city council with the Pds in the following elections. In 1995 he became the party's city secretary and in 1997 he became councillor first for Productive Activities and then for Territorial Planning. In 2000 he joined the DS regional secretariat as head of local authorities and in 2001 he became provincial secretary.

In 2003, the leap to national level: he joined the national leadership of the Left Democrats as deputy head of organisation and then as head of local authorities (2005). In 2006, he became the party's national leader. In 2006, his debut in Parliament with his election as an MP for the Ulivo. He joined the Partito democratico after the dissolution of the DS in April 2007 and became its head of organisation.

Re-elected in 2008 for the PD in the Chamber of Deputies, in the same year he was appointed party spokesman by Walter Veltroni, a position he also held in Dario Franceschini's secretariat. Appointed in 2009 by Pierluigi Bersani as president of the party's Justice Forum, he became a member of the House Justice Committee (2010). In January 2011 he was commissioner of the Pd in Naples. In the 2018 general election he was re-elected to the Chamber of Deputies and has been deputy secretary of the PD since 2019. He is confirmed to the Chamber in the 2022 general election.

He was a minister several times: from 28 April 2013 to 22 February 2014 at the head of the Environment, Land and Sea Protection of the Letta government. From 22 February 2014 to 12 December 2016 Minister of Justice in the Renzi government, reappointed in the Gentiloni government, until 31 May 2018. Back at the head of a ministry with Mario Draghi, who chose him for the Labour and Social Policies ministry.