Ottaviano Del Turco

Ottaviano Del Turco (born November 7, 1944 in Collelongo, province of L'Aquila) is an Italian politician. After a career in trade unionism in the Italian General Confederation of Labour (CGIL) Del Turco rose to the top of Bettino Craxi's Italian Socialist Party (PSI) before it was swept away in the Tangentopoli scandals of 1992-94.

Del Turco was the president of the Antimafia Commission in December 1996 until May 2000. He was minister of Finance from 2000-2001.

He was elected to the European Parliament in 2004 on the Italian Democratic Socialists (SDI) ticket and sat with the Party of European Socialists group. On July 23, 2004 he was elected Chair of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs.

On April 4, 2005 he won the election as President of his native Abruzzo, as candidate for centre-left coalition The Union, and on May 1 resigned his seat in the European Parliament to take up this post.

In 2007, he left the SDI and became a member of the Democratic Party (Partito Democratico, PD) – Italy's largest opposition party. He was a member of the 45-strong national council.

On July 14, 2008 Del Turco was arrested on suspicion of involvement in a 12.8M euro fraud in the financing of the public health system of his region. He has not been charged with a crime, but is suspected of corruption and criminal association, prosecutors said. He was among 10 people arrested or placed under house arrest. On July 17, 2007, he resigned as governor and left the national council of the PD.