Leoluca Orlando

Italian politician (born 1947)

Leoluca Orlando (born 1 August 1947), is an Italian politician]. He was mayor of Palermo for over twenty years and was president of the Italian Federation of American Football (FIDAF). He is best known for his strong opposition to the Sicilian Mafia during his mayoralty in the 1980s, which was publicly referenced in the media as the Palermo Spring .

Orlando was born in Palermo. He graduated in jurisprudence and worked as lawyer and professor at the University of Palermo.

He was a member of Christian Democracy (DC), in the left wing of the party. He entered politics in 1976 as legal adviser to Christian Democratic reformer Piersanti Mattarella, who became president of the Sicilian Region in 1978. The two men set out to break the Mafia's hold on the island, transferring budget authority from the corrupt regional government back to the cities and passing a law enforcing the same building standards used in the rest of Italy, thereby making the Mafia's building schemes illegal. In retaliation, the Mafia killed Mattarella in January 1980. The brother of Mattarella and other associates urged him to run for the Palermo municipal council, he ran successfully, and was elected mayor by the town council in 1985. The charges were also addressed to the judge Roberto Scarpinato and the prosecutor Pietro Giammanco, believed to be close to Andreotti. Falcone substantially dissented from Orlando's conclusions on political responsibilities regarding the actions of the mafia dome (the so called "third level"), arguing as always the need for certain evidence and branding such claims as "political cynicism". Addressed directly to Orlando, he will say: "If the mayor of Palermo knows something, name and surname, cite the facts, take responsibility for what he said. Otherwise keep quiet: it is not lawful to speak in the absence of the interested parties".

In 1996 he was investigated for aggravated corruption during the exercise of his duties as mayor of Palermo. The repentant Tullio Cannella says that in 1986 the municipality of Palermo, after a bribe of 200 million lire, bought the apartments of Joseph Bonanno, famous Italian American crime boss of the Bonanno crime family, which he ran from 1931 to 1968. Recipients of the bribe, according to the repentant, were the Mayor Leoluca Orlando and the councilor Vincenzo Inzerillo, who at the time of the facts was in prison for 16 months for mafia. Orlando denied any responsibility, and declared himself innocent, stating that the accusations against him were false. The affair for Leoluca Orlando had no judicial follow up. No charges were filed.

After the dissolution of the DC, he founded a popular movement called The Network ("La Rete"), which in 1999 joined with Romano Prodi's Democrats. In 2001 he was among the founders of The Daisy, an Italian party currently including most of the former left wing members of DC. In December 2000 he resigned from the position of mayor and was a candidate for the presidency of the autonomous region of Sicily. He was, however, defeated by the centre right candidate Salvatore Cuffaro. In 2006 he was expelled from the Daisy party, after having shown his full support for the candidacy of Rita Borsellino in the Sicilian presidential centre left primary election, contrary to the line of his party that supported its member it. He subsequently joined the Italy of Values of Antonio Di Pietro with whom he was elected at the Italian Chamber of Deputies. He has been the President of the Parliamentary Commission for Regional affairs. In May 2007 he ran as centre left candidate for mayor of Palermo, after having won the centre left primary election in a landslide with about 72% of the votes. He however lost to incumbent Diego Cammarata of the House of Freedoms, who obtained about 53% of votes compared with Orlando's 45%. Following the results, Orlando denounced massive electoral frauds and asked for the annulment of the vote. In the 2008 Italian general election Orlando was elected with Italy of Values (IdV) in the Chamber of Deputies. In 2011 launched The Network 2018, a re foundation of The Network, and finally left IdV in 2013. Along Orlando, splinters from IdV notably included Fabio Giambrone, a former member of the Chamber of Deputies, and Niccolò Rinaldi, a former member of the European Parliament.

Since 2000, he has been the President of the "Sicilian Renaissance Institute" a non profit organization dealing with the promotion of economy and culture of lawfulness and Human rights. In 2023 he established Fondazione Mosaico, a non profit dedicated to promoting cultural understanding, tolerance, and human rights.