Paolo Giaretta is an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 politician from 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...

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He was born in Padua

Padua

Padua is a city and comune in the Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 . The city is sometimes included, with Venice and Treviso, in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, having...

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A long-time Christian Democrat

Christian Democracy (Italy)

Christian Democracy was a Christian democratic party in Italy. It was founded in 1943 as the ideological successor of the historical Italian People's Party, which had the same symbol, a crossed shield ....

, Giaretta was Mayor of Padua from from 1987 to 1993. In 1994, after the dissolution of Christian Democracy, he joined the Italian People's Party and, later, to Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy and the Democratic Party

Democratic Party (Italy)

The Democratic Party is a social-democratic political party in Italy, that is the second-largest in the country. The party is led by Pier Luigi Bersani, who was elected in the 2009 leadership election....

. He was elected to the Italian Senate

Italian Senate

The Senate of the Republic is the upper house of the Italian Parliament. It was established in its current form on 8 May 1948, but previously existed during the Kingdom of Italy as Senato del Regno , itself a continuation of the Senato Subalpino of Sardinia-Piedmont established on 8 May 1848...

 in 1996, 2001

Italian general election, 2001 (Veneto)

The Italian general election of 2001 took place on 13 May 2001. The election was won in Veneto by the centre-right House of Freedoms coalition, which won also nationally, by a landslide...

, 2006

Italian general election, 2006 (Veneto)

The Italian general election of 2006 took place on 10–11 April 2006. The election was won in Veneto by the centre-right House of Freedoms coalition by a landslide in an election narrowly won by the centre-left The Union at the national level....

 and 2008

Italian general election, 2008 (Veneto)

The Italian general election of 2008 took place on 13–14 April 2008. The election was won in Veneto by the centre-right coalition between The People of Freedom and Lega Nord, as it happened at the national level...

. Between 2007 and 2009 he was the first regional secretary of the Democratic Party in Veneto.