Background
Heir of a family of steel manufacturers going back four generations, Brambilla received a degree in philosophy from the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore.
Heir of a family of steel manufacturers going back four generations, Brambilla received a degree in philosophy from the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore.
On May 12, 2008, she was nominated undersecretary (Tourism) in the Berlusconi IV Cabinet. On May 8, 2009, she was appointed Minister of Culture and Tourism, a position held until 2011. In 2006 she lost an election for the Chamber of Deputies, on the Forza Italia ticket.
In 2007 she named herself president of the national association of the Circles of Freedom, the political organisation she created, which has more than 6,000 clubs all around Italy.
She is the general executive manager of Trafilerie Brambilla spa, a steel manufacturing firm, and is president of two businesses with her father Vittorio: Sal Group spa and Sotra Coast International. She rose quickly to national prominence in 2003 after having been named president of the under-40 entrepreneurs council at Confcommercio.
On November 20, 2006 she founded the Freedom Circles organisation. Some observers (such as the magazine Panorama), name her as a possible successor to Berlusconi, as leader of the party and of the Italian centre-right.
Brambilla has publicly denied such rumours.
In June 2007, through the Freedom Circles organisation, Brambilla launched the satellite channel Freedom television, featuring talks with experts, professionals and private citizens, often connected with her personal campaign against tax evasion.
Before entering politics she was a television journalist for Berlusconi"s Mediaset group. She has worked very closely with Silvio Berlusconi, the president of the Forza Italia party.