Guido Crosetto

Guido Crosetto (born 19 September 1963) is an Italian politician and businessman who is the Minister of Defence since 22 October 2022. Born in Cuneo, he grew up into a family involved in agriculture and construction, and later took over the family business. Crosetto began his political career in Christian Democracy (DC) and was mainly involved in the local politics of Piedmont. From 1990 to 2004, he was mayor of Marene. In 2000, he joined Forza Italia (FI). His rise in national politics began with his election to the Chamber of Deputies in 2001, a position he held until 2013 and from 2018 to 2019. In 2009, Crosetto joined The People of Freedom (PdL) and served as an undersecretary at the Ministry of Defence in the fourth Berlusconi government from 2008 to 2011. In 2012, Crosetto was among the founders (alongside Giorgia Meloni and Ignazio La Russa) of Brothers of Italy (FdI), of which he served as national coordinator from 2013 to 2014 and from 2018 to 2019, representing its moderate wing. After leaving electoral politics in 2014, Crosetto returned to the Chamber of Deputies in 2018 and again served as national coordinator of FdI. He resigned from Italian Parliament in 2019 to focus on his business career, while remaining a close adviser to Meloni and an influential figure within the party. He was widely regarded as part of FdI's moderate wing and advocated its development into a broad conservative party rather than a narrowly right-wing movement. Crosetto was active in the Italian defence industry, serving as president of the Federation of Italian Companies for Aerospace, Defence and Security (AIAD), senior adviser to Leonardo, and chairman of Orizzonte Sistemi Navali. In 2022, he became Minister of Defence in the Meloni government. Before becoming defence minister, he resigned from his private-sector...