Vittorio Sgarbi
Vittorio Sgarbi (born May 8, 1952 in Ferrara) is an Italian art critic, politician and cultural commentator. He is popularly known for his verbal violence, first seen in Maurizio Costanzo's talk show aired on Canale 5.
A controversial character in terms of politics, he changed his party affiliation with notable frequence: he started his political career in 1990 as mayoral candidate of Pesaro for the Italian Communist Party; he then became city councillor of San Severino Marche running as Italian Socialist Party candidate, being then elected as mayor, his candidacy being supported by the Italian Social Movement and the Christian Democracy. In 1992 he was elected to the Italian Chamber of Deputies under the Italian Liberal Party banner, and then chose to join the Italian Radicals. In 1999 he founded his own libertarian movement, I Liberal Sgarbi-I Libertari, and successively joined Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, being part of a centre-right cabinet from 2001 to 2002 as undersecretary for culture. In 2004 he chose to run together with the Italian Republican Party in the European elections, but obtained only a 0.7% of votes, being not elected.
In 2005 he self-declared his candidacy for the L'Unione centre-left primary election, which was however rejected due to his past participation to the Berlusconi cabinet. He then ran unsuccessfully with the Consumers' List, part of the centre-left coalition, in 2006. He later chose to leave the centre-left, and announced his intention to run in the 2006 mayoral election in Milan; he then ruled out his candidacy after reaching an agreement with centre-right candidate Letizia Moratti. Sgarbi consequently served as culture spokesman until April 2008, when he was sacked by Letizia Moratti following months of disputes between them. On June 2008 he successfully ran as mayor of Salemi, a little town in South-Western Sicily, with the support of the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats and the Christian Democracy for the Autonomies, winning the election following the second ballot with over 60% of votes.
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