Clemente Mastella

Clemente Mastella
Mastella in 2020
Mayor of Benevento
Assumed office
20 June 2016
Preceded byFausto Pepe
Minister of Justice
In office
17 May 2006 – 16 January 2008
Prime MinisterRomano Prodi
Preceded byRoberto Castelli
Succeeded byRomano Prodi
Minister of Labour and Social Security
In office
10 May 1994 – 17 January 1995
Prime MinisterSilvio Berlusconi
Preceded byGino Giugni
Succeeded byTiziano Treu
Member of the European Parliament
for Southern Italy
In office
14 July 2009 – 1 July 2014
In office
20 July 1999 – 20 July 2004
Member of the Senate of the Republic
In office
28 April 2006 – 28 April 2008
ConstituencyCalabria
Member of the Chamber of Deputies
In office
5 July 1976 – 27 April 2006
ConstituencyCampania
Mayor of Ceppaloni
In office
25 May 2003 – 13 April 2008
In office
10 March 1986 – 21 July 1992
Personal details
Born
Mario Clemente Mastella

(1947-02-05) 5 February 1947 (age 77)
Ceppaloni, Italy
Political partyDC (1976–1994)
CDC (1994–1998)
CDR (1998)
UDR (1998–1999)
UDEUR (1999–2013)
FI (2013–2015; 2018–2020)
PpS (2015–2017)
UDEUR 2.0 (2017–2018)
NC (2020–2021)
NDC (since 2021)
Height1.77 m (5 ft 10 in)
Spouse
Sandra Lonardo
(m. 1975)
Children2
ProfessionPolitician, former journalist

Mario Clemente Mastella (born 5 February 1947) is an Italian politician who has been the mayor of Benevento since 20 June 2016. He also served as leader of the Union of Democrats for Europe (UDEUR), a minor centrist and Christian-democratic Italian party. Mastella, who began his career in the Christian Democracy (DC) party, being elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1976, is known for his trasformismo, changing over his career many political parties and affiliations.

Mastella was Minister of Labour and Social Policies in the first Berlusconi government from 10 May 1994 to 17 January 1995 and Minister of Justice in the second Prodi government from 17 May 2006 to 17 January 2008. During the same period, he was a member of the Senate of the Republic and determined the narrow majority of Romano Prodi's government, which ended when he started the 2008 Italian government crisis that led to Prodi's resignation as prime minister and Silvio Berlusconi return to power after the snap election that ensued. In June 2009, he was elected to the European Parliament on the list of The People of Freedom (PdL) of Berlusconi; it was his second stint at the European Parliament, after a first term with the UDEUR from 1999 until 2004. After having been the mayor of Ceppaloni twice in three separate decades (1980s, 1990s, and 2000s), he was elected mayor of Benevento in 2016 and re-elected in 2021.