Martina was born in
Calcinate, near
Bergamo, in 1978. He grew up in a
middle-class working family, he attended the Agricultural Institute and later he graduated in
political science at the
University of Macerata. In 1994, he joined the Students' Movement, a left-wing organization, and in 1999 he was elected to the city council of
Mornico al Serio for the
Democrats of the Left (DS). In the early 2000s he became a leading member of the Youth Left, the youth wing of the DS. In 2007, he joined the new-founded
Democratic Party and in 2009 he was appointed Responsible for Agriculture in the new secretariat led by
Pier Luigi Bersani. In 2013, he was appointed undersecretary to the
Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies, in the government of
Enrico Letta.
Minister of Agriculture On 22 February 2014, when the new secretary of the PD,
Matteo Renzi, forced Letta to resign, becoming the new prime minister, he appointed Martina
Minister of Agriculture. In 2015, Martina founded
Left is Change, a left-wing
social-democratic faction within the PD, allied with the centrist ones led by Matteo Renzi and
Dario Franceschini. During his tenure as Minister of Agriculture, various measures have been developed and approved in favor of youth employment in
agriculture, bureaucratic simplification for businesses, generational turnover and internationalization of enterprises. Furthermore, during his mandate, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which has been in force since 1 January 2015, has been definitively approved. During his ministry,
Milan hosted the
Universal Exposition; the themes were technology, innovation, culture and traditions concerning food. Participants to the Expo include 145 countries, three international organisations, several civil society organisations, several corporations and
non-governmental organisations (NGOs). The participants are hosted inside
individual or grouped pavilions. Martina proposed a law against the so-called
caporalato, that is the exploitation of
unreported employment in agriculture, which had been a serious and widespread problem especially in
Southern Italy. On 12 December 2016, when Renzi resigned as prime minister after the
constitutional referendum, Martina was confirmed as Agriculture Minister by the new prime minister
Paolo Gentiloni. In February 2017, the incumbent secretary Renzi announced an electoral ticket with Martina for the
Democratic leadership election in April; Martina would become Deputy Secretary and would probably lead the party if Renzi becomes prime minister again.
Secretary of the Democratic Party In the
2018 Italian general election, the centre-left coalition arrived third behind the centre-right alliance, in which
Matteo Salvini's League was the main political force, and the Five Star Movement of
Luigi Di Maio finished second. On 5 March, Renzi announced that the PD will be in opposition during this legislature and he will resign as secretary when a new cabinet will be formed. Renzi officially resigned on 12 March during PD's national directorate, and his deputy secretary Martina was appointed acting leader. On 23 April 2018, after
Elisabetta Casellati, President of the Senate, failed to form a cabinet combining the M5S and the centre-right, President
Sergio Mattarella gave an exploratory mandate to the President of the Chamber of Deputies,
Roberto Fico, to try to create a political agreement between the Five Star Movement and the Democratic Party. Martina expressed his positive views, declaring that a government with the M5S could be possible. On 30 April, in an interview to
Fabio Fazio, the former PD's leader Renzi expressed his strong opposition to an alliance with the M5S, and after few days the national direction of the party voted against the alliance. On 7 July, he was elected Secretary by the party's assembly, with the aim of bringing the PD toward
new leadership election in early 2019, before the
European election. On 3 March 2019, Martina lost the
party leadership election against
Nicola Zingaretti, receiving 22% of votes against Zingaretti's 66% and
Roberto Giachetti's 12%.
Work at the Food and Agriculture Organization On 12 January 2021, Martina resigned as member of the Chamber of Deputies to become Deputy Director-General of the
Food and Agriculture Organization. == References ==