Roberto Gualtieri (born 19 July 1966) is an Italian historian, academic and politician of the Democratic Party (PD), incumbent Mayor of Rome since 2021 and Minister of Economy and Finances in the second government of Giuseppe Conte from 2019 until 2021. He previously was a Member of the European Parliament from 2009 to 2019, where he chaired the influential Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee within the Parliament from 2014 until 2019. Early life and career Gualtieri was born in Rome in 1966. In 1992 he graduated in Literature and Philology at Sapienza University of Rome. In 1997, he obtained a Ph.D in history at the Scuola Superiore di Studi Storici di San Marino. Gualtieri later became professor of Contemporary history at Sapienza University of Rome, where he had authored several books and articles on twentieth century Italian history and on the history of European integration. Political career Since 2001, Gualtieri has been Deputy Director of the Gramsci Institute Foundation. In the same year, he became a member of Democrats of the Left (DS), the main social-democratic political party in Italy, direct heir of the Italian Communist Party. In 2006, Gualtieri was among the founders of the Democratic Party (Congress of Orvieto, October 2006) and he was among the "wise men" who wrote its Manifesto. In 2007 he was elected to the National Assembly of the party and since 2008 he has been a member of its National board, where he was confirmed in 2014. Gualtieri voted against party leader Matteo Renzi in favour of post-communists both in 2013 and 2014 (the year Renzi won the leadership ballot). From 2008 to 2011, Gualtieri served as director (with José Luis Rhi-Sausi) of the "Annual Report on European Integration" (published by Il Mulino). Since 2009, he is a member of the editorial committee of the Foundation "Italianieuropei" . Member of the European Parliament In 2009, Gualtieri was appointed S&D Group coordinator for the Subcommittee on Security and Defence (SEDE) and standing rapporteur for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) budget in the Committee on Budgets (BUDG). He was also a full member of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs (AFCO) and substitute of the Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET). In 2010, he was appointed S&D Group negotiator within the EP negotiating team (with Elmar Brok and Guy Verhofstadt) on the creation of the European External Action Service. In addition to his committee assignments,