Claudio Martelli

Claudio Martelli (born 24 September 1943) is an Italian former politician and journalist. He is the editor-in-chief of the former Italian Socialist Party (PSI) newspaper Avanti! The right-hand man of Bettino Craxi, the PSI leader and Prime Minister of Italy from 1983 to 1987, Martelli was Deputy Prime Minister of Italy from 1989 to 1992 and Minister of Justice from 1991 to 1993, when he was implicated in the Tangentopoli scandal and left politics. Martelli returned to politics in 1997 and re-founded Mondoperaio, a PSI-affiliated cultural magazine, and joined the Italian Democratic Socialists (SDI), becoming in 1999 a Member of the European Parliament (MEP), a position he first held with the PSI between 1984 and 1989. In 2001, he joined the centre-right coalition-affiliated New Italian Socialist Party (NPSI) and unsuccessfully ran for the Chamber of Deputies, a position he also held with the PSI from 1979 to 1994. After again ending his party politics career in 2005, Martelli became a television presenter and re-launched Avanti!