Mayor of Palermo
Leoluca Orlando

He is lawyer, and professor of public law at the University of Palermo; right after his university studies he lives some years in Heidelberg, Germany where he learns the language. As International consultan he works for the Ocse in Paris and, between 1978 and 1980, as legal adviser for Piersanti Mattarella, President of the Regione Siciliana, who was killed by the mafia in 1980. In the same years he is elected Town Councillor for the "Christian-Democrat" Pary and in 1985 Mayor of Palermo. during the so called "Spring of Palermo", Orlando appoints a Town Council, composed by left parties and political movements, upsetting the traditional hegemony of the political parties. In the meantime he takes part in various meetings, denouncing the hegemony of the organized crime and promoting the sensible growth of the "antimafia" movement, that will lead to the birth of the democratic party "La Rete" (the net): Its engagement concerns political, cultural and social matters.

It is still Orlando who will denounce the danger represented by the economic power of the mafia and by the alliance of the organized crime with the mighty political lobbies. 1989, on occasion of the election of the European Parliament.

Orlando, by that time member of the Christian-Democrats - the majority party, refuses to run as a candidate side by side with Salvo Lima, mighty exponent of the political stream leaded by Giulio Andreotti, notoriously linked with the mafia families of Palermo. "Either me or Lima" is the request of Orlando to his party, that nevertheless prefers Lima. During the communal elections in Palermo in 1990, Leoluca Orlando runs as number one candidate for the Christian Democrat Party.

On that occasion Giulio Andreotti, extraordinarily influential Premier, whom Orlando had accused to be a warrant of the Mafia, asks the citizens of Palermo to vote from number two on the list downwards. Yet 71.000 electors will choose Orlando. In 1991 he founds the democratic movement "La Rete - The Net". A kind of barrier against corruption and crime within the political parties, whose mani aim is to bring back moral issues in italian politics, through the so called "Transversalità", that is the participation of all the positive forces of the political parties.

In this perios Orlando denounces the so called "P.a.m.m.", a connection between politics, mafia and Freemasonry, that is responsible for the massacres and crimes and also for having prejudiced the course of the social democratic process in Italy and especially in Sicily, and that is, furthermore, capable of having in fluence on other italian and foreign areas. 1991 he is elected deputy of the Assemblea Regionale Siciliana (Regional Sicilian Parliament), as a candidate of the electoral list of La Rete; 1992, also as a candidate of La Rete, he is elected deputy of the National Italian Parliament. At present he is honorary President of the Movement La Rete.

After he has been elected Mayor by 75% of the voters (80% of the citizens of Palermo), he starts immediately to make reforms, in order to banish the economic interests of the organized crime from the Commune of Palermo. And, moreover, he carries on the process he already had started in 1985 (with considerable difficulties, considering that at that time the Mayor had less power, as selected by his political party and not elected directly, therefore subject to a particular strong pressure of the political forces) that is the suspension of assignments of maintenance works to companies that are suspected to be somehow connected to the Mafia.

1994 he is elected deputy of the European Parliament, where is Vice-President of the Commitee in favour of the entry of Malta in the European Union and temporary member of the Commitee for Safety and Disarmament; As a member of the "Green Party" he engages himself to give the Mediterranean a more important role within the European Union. Recently he was confirmed in his appointment as Member of the European Commite for Public Liberty and for Home (Interior) Affairs and was asked to take part in the Commite for Regional Politics.

November the 30 1997. In occasion of the elections, leoluca Orlando was confirmed Mayor of Palermo with 207.448 votes that is 58,57 % of all voters. From June 1998 he is President of the Car Free Cities Club, the union among the European Cities promoting the sustainable urban mobility, reducing the use of private cars.