Lorenzo Guerini (born 21 November 1966) is an Italian politician and member of the Democratic Party (PD). Guerini has been serving as the Italian Minister of Defence in the cabinets of successive prime ministers Giuseppe Conte and Mario Draghi from 2019 to 2022. In March 2014, he was chosen by party leader Matteo Renzi to be deputy secretary of the PD along with Debora Serracchiani, a position that he held until May 2017. From 2005 to 2012, he served as mayor of Lodi, Lombardy, his hometown. Early life and education Guerini was born in Lodi, Lombardy, in 1966. During the 1970s he attended the Agostino Bassi Institute in Lodi. He later graduated in political science at the Cattolica University of Milan. Political career Career in local politics Guerini began his political career at the beginning of the 1990s in the ranks of the Christian Democracy (DC). He was elected twice as municipal councilor in Lodi for the DC, where he also carried out the functions of councilor for social services. In 1994 he was chosen as the local coordinator of the new-born Italian People's Party (PPI), the direct heir of DC. In May 1995, Guerini was elected first president of the Province of Lodi representing the centre-left coalition and becoming the youngest provincial president in Italy at the age of 28. In June 1999 he won a second term, during which, following the dissolution of the Italian People's Party, he The Daisy (DL), a Christian leftist political party, of which he became a main national leader. In the 2005 local elections, Guerini was elected Mayor of Lodi for the centre-left, obtaining 54.1% of valid votes in the first round; he was also appointed president of the Lombardy section of the National Association of Italian Municipalities (ANCI) between 2005 and 2010. Together with the majority of The Daisy members, in 2007 he joined the Democratic Party (PD), the new centre-left party, born from the union between The Daisy and the Democrats of the Left. In the 2010 local elections, Guerini was again elected mayor in the first round of voting, with 53.7% of the votes. During his term as mayor he enjoyed a broad and widespread popular consensus, becoming one of the most appreciated mayors in Italy. On 31 December 2012, Guerini resigned from his post, in order to present his candidacy for the upcoming parliamentary election in February 2013, in