Flavio Tosi
Encyclopedia
Flavio Tosi is an Italian Venetist
Venetism
Venetian nationalism is an ideology and a regionalist movement demanding more autonomy, or even independence from Italy, for Veneto, and promoting the re-discovery the Republic of Venice's heritage, traditions, culture and language...

 politician. He is member of Liga Veneta
Liga Veneta
Liga Veneta is a regionalist political party based in Veneto, combining Venetism and fiscal federalism. Liga Veneta is by far the largest party in Veneto and the party of Luca Zaia, President of Veneto since March 2010.It was the first party of its kind in Northern Italy, predating Umberto...

–Lega Nord.

Career

Having joined Liga Veneta in 1991, he was elected to the Municipal Council of Verona in 1994 at the age of 25. From 1997 to 2003 he was also provincial secretary of Liga Veneta for the Province of Verona
Province of Verona
The Province of Verona is a province in the Veneto region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Verona.-Overview:The province has an area of 3,109 km², and a total population of 912,981...

. In the meantime, in the 2000 regional election
Venetian regional election, 2000
The Venetian regional election of 2000 took place on 16 April 2000.Giancarlo Galan was re-elected for the third time President of the Region by a landslide over the centre-left candidate Massimo Cacciari ....

 he was elected to the Regional Council of Veneto
Regional Council of Veneto
The Regional Council of Veneto is the regional parliament of Veneto.It was first elected in 1970, when the ordinary Regions were instituted, on the basis of the Constitution of Italy of 1948.-Composition:...

, where he was floor leader of Liga Veneta for two years.

After being the most voted candidate in the 2005 regional election
Venetian regional election, 2005
The Venetian regional election of 2005 took place on 3-4 April 2005.Giancarlo Galan was re-elected for the third time in a row President of the Region, but the support for him was diminished by the presence of a third candidate, Giorgio Panto, who picked votes both from the centre-right and the...

 (more than 28,000 preference votes), he was appointed regional health minister
Galan III Government
The Galan III Government was the government of Veneto from 19 May 2005 to 19 April 2010....

 for the Veneto
Veneto
Veneto is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about 5 million, ranking 5th in Italy.Veneto had been for more than a millennium an independent state, the Republic of Venice, until it was eventually annexed by Italy in 1866 after brief Austrian and French rule...

 Region. Aged 36, he was one of the rising stars of the new generation of Lega Nord in Veneto, alongside Luca Zaia
Luca Zaia
Luca Zaia is an Italian Venetist politician, member of Liga Veneta–Lega Nord.Since March 2010 Zaia is President of Veneto...

 and Federico Bricolo
Federico Bricolo
Federico Bricolo is an Italian politician. He is a Venetist, member of Liga Veneta-Lega Nord.He has been member of the Chamber of Deputies from 2001 to 2008, when he was elected to the Senate, where he chairs the parliamentary group of Lega Nord...

.

In late 2006 Tosi launched his bid for Mayor of Verona. Initially he was supported only by his party, but then, thanks to the excellent support in opinion polls, he was able to threw behind himself the whole centre-right coalition from National Alliance
National Alliance (Italy)
National Alliance was a conservative political party in Italy.Gianfranco Fini was the leader of the party since its foundation in 1995, however he stepped down in 2008 after being elected to the nominally non-partisan post of President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies and was succeeded by...

 to the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats, from the Christian Democracy for Autonomies to Forza Italia
Forza Italia
Forza Italia was a liberal-conservative, Christian democratic, and liberal political party in Italy, with a large social democratic minority, that was led by Silvio Berlusconi, four times Prime Minister of Italy....

. On 28 May 2007 he was elected Mayor of Verona by a large margin: 60.8% to 33.9% of the incumbent Paolo Zanotto. Verona is the second largest Italian city ever ruled by Lega Nord, the first one being Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

, ruled by Marco Formentini
Marco Formentini
Marco Formentini is an Italian politician from the Northern League, then for the Democrats and finally for Democracy is Freedom - Daisy. When he was young he was member of the Italian Socialist Party....

 from 1993 to 1997. He has since been one of the most popular mayors in Italy with approval ratings around 65-75%.

On 20 July 2008 Tosi was elected president of Liga Veneta.

Legal troubles

On 2 December 2004 Tosi was found guilty of instigation to racism according to the Mancino Law, for having collected signatures against the establishment of new gypsy camps in Verona. Later, on 30 January 2007, the Court of Appeal found Tosi not guilty for the above offence, while at the same time finding him guilty of a minor offence (promoting a hatred campaign). On 13 December 2007 the Court of Cassation
Court of Cassation (Italy)
The Supreme Court of Cassation is the major court of last resort in Italy. It has its seat in the Rome Hall of Justice.The Court of Cassation exists also to “ensure the observation and the correct interpretation of law” by ensuring the same application of law in the inferior and appeal courts...

 cancelled the latter sentence and ruled that the a new appeal
Appeal
An appeal is a petition for review of a case that has been decided by a court of law. The petition is made to a higher court for the purpose of overturning the lower court's decision....

must take place. On June 2008 the Court of Cassation publicized the motivations of its December 2007 sentence, stating that Tosi was not guilty of promoting ideas of racial superiority or hatred and that it is acceptable to discriminate against Roma on the grounds that they are thieves, indicating that the Court of Appeals should not consider as crime political initiatives aimed at illegal acts of minority members.

On 20 October 2008 the Appeals' Court of Venice upheld the conviction of Tosi to two months of imprisonment with suspended sentence. The Court has given sixty days for filing the motivation. Tosi has announced its intention to appeal to the Court of Cassation. On 11 July 2009 that Court definitively sentence Tosi to two months of imprisonment with suspended sentence. In October 2009 Tosi was sentenced by the Court of Cassation to a sanction of 4,000 euro and to the suspension for three years from holding public rallies.

External links

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