Ignazio Benito Maria La Russa (born 18 July 1947) is an Italian politician who is serving as president of the Senate of the Republic since 13 October 2022. He is the first politician with a neo-fascist background to hold the position of President of the Senate, the second highest-ranking office of the Italian Republic. La Russa also served as Minister of Defence in the Berlusconi IV Cabinet from 2008 to 2011, and as Vice President of the Senate of the Republic from 2018 until 2022.
La Russa was born in Paternò, near Catania, Sicily, in 1947. His father, Antonino La Russa, served as secretary of the National Fascist Party (PNF) for Paternò during the 1940s and joined the Italian Social Movement (MSI) after the war, being elected to the Parliament several times. La Russa had two brothers, both of them involved in politics: Vincenzo, a former senator for Christian Democracy (DC), and Romano, a former member of the European Parliament for the MSI's legal successor, the National Alliance.
When he was 13, his family moved to Milan, where his father was a practising lawyer. After attending college in St. Gallen, a German-speaking Swiss canton, he obtained a degree in law at the University of Pavia. After serving as a Regular Army Reserve Officer, he has worked as a criminal defence lawyer at the Supreme Court of Cassation. He is married to Laura De Cicco and has three sons: Geronimo, Lorenzo, and Leonardo.
During his youth, La Russa joined the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement (MSI), and was involved in nationalist activism in Milan. In 1971, he became one of the main leaders of the newly-formed Youth Front (FdG), the youth section of the MSI. On 12 April 1973, during a demonstration organized by the MSI against what they called "red violence", two hand grenades were thrown, one of which killed the 22-year-old policeman Antonio Marino. La Russa was accused of being one of the "moral perpetrators" of the bombings.
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