Anna Finocchiaro

Senator Anna Finocchiaro
File:Anna Finocchiaro.jpg
Minister for Equal Opportunities
In office 17 May 1996 – 21 October 1998
Prime Minister	Romano Prodi
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Laura Balbo
Personal details
Born	(1955-03-31) 31 March 1955 Modica, Italy
Political party	Communist Party (Before 1991) Democratic Party of the Left (1991–1998) Democrats of the Left (1998–2007) Democratic Party (2007–present)

Anna Finocchiaro Fidelbo (Italian pronunciation: [ˈanna finokˈkjaːro]; born 31 March 1955; Modica) is an Italian politician. She is the Democratic Party's leader in the Senate. She served as Minister for Equal Opportunities in the cabinet of Romano Prodi from 1996–98.

Biography

Finocchiaro graduated in law in 1978, and she worked for the Banca d'Italia's branch in Savona before becoming a magistrate in Leonforte in 1982. She served as a magistrate until 1985, when she was appointed as a deputy public prosecutor at the court of Catania. She was first elected to the Chamber of Deputies as a member of the Communist Party in 1987; she was elected to Catania's council in 1988. She was later a member of both the Democratic Party of the Left and the Democrats of the Left, and she was a founding member of the Democratic Party in 2007.

Finocchiaro served as Minister for Equal Opportunities in the first cabinet of Romano Prodi from 1996-98. She stood for the Senate for the first time at the 2006 general election—she had been in the lower chamber since 1987—and was named as the group chair of the Olive Tree coalition following her election. She was named the leader of the Democratic Party in the Senate following the party's creation in 2007, and she was reconfirmed as leader following the 2008 general election. In 2008 she also stood unsuccessfully to be President of Sicily.

Her husband and is currently under investigation by the Italian courts for abuse of office aggravated fraud.