Nicola Zingaretti (; born 11 October 1965) is an Italian politician who served as President of Lazio and was Secretary of the Democratic Party from March 2019 until March 2021. During the 1990s, he was a prominent European youth leader, serving as National Secretary of the Left Youth, the youth-wing of the Democratic Party of the Left and as President of the International Union of Socialist Youth. In 2004, Zingaretti became a Member of the European Parliament for the centre-left coalition The Olive Tree. From 2008 to 2012, he served as President of the Province of Rome. Zingaretti is considered a social democrat and one of the most prominent members of the party's left-wing. Moreover, he is the longest-serving President of Lazio as well as the first one to be re-elected after a first five-year term. He is the brother of the actor Luca Zingaretti, who plays Salvo Montalbano in the Inspector Montalbano television series. Early life Nicola Zingaretti was born in Rome in 1965, where he grew up in a middle-class family. Zingaretti's mother is an Italian Jew, who on 16 October 1943 managed to escape from the Nazis with her mother, while her grandmother Ester Della Torre was deported to Auschwitz concentration camp, where she died after a few days. He has one sister, Angela, and an older brother, Luca, who has become a well-known actor, famous for playing Salvo Montalbano in the Inspector Montalbano mystery series. While attending a professional school for dental technicians, Zingaretti started his commitment to associations taking part in the peace movements. Moreover, at 17 years old he was one of the founders of the anti-racist association "Black and not only" (Nero e non-solo), whose main aims were to promote liberal immigration politics and to create a multicultural and multiethnic society. He obtained a certificate as a dental technician in 1984. He then attended the faculty of Letters at the Sapienza University of Rome, but passed only three exams and never graduated. During these years he met his future wife Cristina, with whom he has two daughters. Political career Youth leader Zingaretti started his political career within the ranks of the Italian Communist Party (PCI), where, between 1985 and 1989, he was the City Secretary for Rome. In the same years he also served as member of the National Board of Italian Communist Youth Federation (FGCI). Zingaretti later became a member of PCI's