Career
He has been elected Member of Parliament at the Chamber of Deputies of Italy for the riding of Trapani in the 2001 general election in the House of Freedoms centre-right coalition, serving until 2006. He left this party in late January 2006 after the rejection, by a judicial court, of his claim of having been elected as new national Secretary. Thus he founded a new movement, The Italian Socialists, of which he was the leader for a period.
The party was part of the centre-left The Union, and eventually merged into the Socialist Party in 2007.
He served in 2006-2008 in the Romano Prodi government as Foreign Affairs undersecretary, delegated to United Nations relationships.