Elly Schlein
Elena Ethel "Elly" Schlein (; born 4 May 1985) is an Italian politician. She has been the secretary of the Democratic Party (PD) since 12 March 2023. She is a member of Italy's Chamber of Deputies and was previously the vice-president of Emilia-Romagna and a member of the European Parliament. On 26 February 2023, she was elected as the new secretary of the PD in an upset. Early life and education Elena Ethel Schlein was born on 4 May 1985 in Lugano, Switzerland. Her father, Melvin Schlein, is an American academic and political scientist of Ashkenazi Jewish descent. Her mother, Maria Paola Viviani, is a professor of comparative public law at the University of Insubria. Originally, her paternal grandfather's surname was Schleyen; after arriving at Ellis Island, he changed it to Schlein. Her maternal grandfather was the Italian Socialist Party politician , senator from 1972 to 1979 and a member of the High Council of the Judiciary. Her paternal ancestors were from Zhovkva, now located in Ukraine, and her paternal grandmother, from whom she takes the middle name "Ethel", was of Lithuanian origin. She has a sister who is a diplomat by profession and a brother who is a mathematician. Later in life, Schlein moved to Bologna. She graduated in law at the University of Bologna in 2011, discussing a thesis on constitutional law. Schlein holds American, Italian and Swiss citizenships. Political career Early beginnings, 2008–2013 In 2008 and 2012, Schlein volunteered on Barack Obama's two presidential campaigns in the United States. In 2011, she was one of the founders of the association of university students known as Progrè, an association that dealt with deepening and sensitising public opinion on issues related to migration policies and the prison reality. In April 2013, Romano Prodi, former Prime Minister of Italy and president of the Democratic Party (PD), received in support less than 100 centre-left coalition electors and left the 2013 Italian presidential election campaign. In response, Schlein gave life to the mobilisation campaign known as #OccupyPD, which criticised those behind Prodi's loss and opposed the formation of a grand coalition government, the Letta Cabinet. In the 2013 PD leadership election on 8 December, Schlein gave her support to Giuseppe Civati, who ranked third. Member of the European Parliament, 2014–2019 In February 2014, Schlein ran with the PD for a seat at the European Parliament in the North-Eastern constituency. In the 2014 European Parliament election in Italy, she was elected to the European Parliament. She served on the European Parliament Committee on Development. In addition to her committee assignments, she was part of the parliament's delegation to the European Union–Albania Stabilisation and Association Parliamentary Committee. In May 2015, Schlein announced through a post on Facebook that she was leaving the PD, being in deep disagreement with the new political line of the party impressed by the party secretary and Italy's prime minister Matteo Renzi, and joined Possible, the party founded by Civati. In April 2019, Schlein announced her intention not to run