Francesco Rocca is the winner of the regional elections in Lazio

He had chosen “Future Direction” as his slogan. That future that he built with great care: lawyer, health manager, number one in the Red Cross and now governor.

Not even a conviction for a bad story of drug dealing has stopped the rise of Francesco Rocca. Raised in Ostia, the 57-year-old candidate chosen by Giorgia Meloni and managed to win against Fabio Rampelli even when, after the triumph of FdI in politics, the civic option seemed to have faded.

When at the age of 19 Rocca, raised in the Youth Front, was stopped by the carabinieri, engaged in an investigation into drug dealing in Casal Palocco, the blow was very hard. He admitted to having met some young Nigerians and, as stated in the sentence with which he was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment, “to have taken an interest at their request to find a buyer for large quantities of heroin”.

As he repeats almost daily, what could have been his downfall has become an opportunity for redemption.

He approached the world of volunteering, graduated in law, also ending up under guard while dealing with collaborators of justice, and then became a health manager, appointed by Francesco Storace at the Sant’Andrea summit in Rome after being president of the Ipab “Asilo della Patria”.

He was also involved in Spallanzani, in the National Cancer Institute-Ircss Pascale Foundation in Naples, in ASL Napoli 2 and in Idi. However, Rocca’s real power came with the presidency, in 2013, of the Italian Red Cross, and then of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. He has acquired the fame of Mr. Wolf, criticisms and accusations have not scratched him, it has not embarrassed him to have the former black extremist among his main collaborators Marcellus De Angelis and Fratelli d’Italia bet on him.

However, the relationship with the broker should be added to the official biography Gianluigi Torziinvolved in the investigation into the affairs of the Secretariat of State at the time of Cardinal Angelo Becciu, the presidency of Confapi, the private health union, activity in the San Raffaele degli Angelucci Foundation, the management of the Maria Monti Foundation, the chair on the Board of Directors of Idi Farmaceutici of Pomezia and having also taken over the shares of an advertising and marketing research company founded by Storace.

Shadows have sprung up on his street address, with candidates who signed the acceptance of their candidacy before a notary and were then excluded overnight, and to make matters worse, the case of the house in Rome purchased with the Enpaia discount also emerged. For him it was the usual criticisms from the left and he went straight to leading a coalition made up of FdI, FI, Lega, Udc, Noi Moderati and the civic that bears his name.