When he was 13, his family moved to Milan, where his father Antonino La Russa was a practising lawyer. After attending college in the German-speaking Swiss canton of St. Gallen, he obtained a degree in Law at the University of Pavia. After serving as a Regular Army Reserve Officer, he has worked as a criminal defence lawyer at the Court of Cassation. He is married and has three sons, Geronimo, Lorenzo and Leonardo.
Political and governative career
He has shown an interest in politics since his student years, and was involved in far-right activism in Milan. In 1985, he was elected as Regional Councillor for the Lombardy Region, for the Italian party Movimento Sociale Italiano, and he was re-elected in 1990. In the April 1992 Italian general election, he was elected Member of Parliament to both the Senate of the Republic and the Chamber of Deputies ; after the election he left the Lombardy Regional Council and choose to be a member of the lower house and refused to be a member of the upper house; the electoral law of that time allowed a candidate to run for election as representative for both the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies: if the candidate obtained sufficient votes to be elected to both, he had to opt for one of the two Houses; this law has been modified some years after 1992 election: now candidates before the election have to choose the House they will run for in advance; in 1992 Daniela Santanché became one of his assistants. On 29 June 1993, the President of the conservative National Alliance, Gianfranco Fini appointed him as First Vice-President of National Alliance. On 27 March 1994, he was re-elected MP and appointed Deputy Speaker of Montecitorio. Re-elected as MP in April 1996 general election, he was appointed Chairman of the "Committee on Parliamentary Immunity" of the Chamber of Deputies, an office he held for the entire 13th Parliament. On 5 June 2001, he was elected Chairman of the Deputies of National Alliance Parliamentary Group at the Chamber of Deputies until 8 October 2003. Between November 2004 and July 2005 he was again Chairman of the Deputies of AN: he held this office also during the following Parliament, as he was re-elected MP in the ‘Lombardy 1’ constituency. Throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s, thanks to his professional background, he acted as spokesman for the Right on justice-related subjects: also of note is his commitment with respect to other significant issues, namely security of citizens, immigration, reduction of the tax burden, safeguarding national identity, and the liberal professions. On 8 May 2008, he was appointed Minister of Defence, office he held until 16 November 2011 when Berlusconi IV Cabinet was replaced by Monti Cabinet. On 21 December 2012, La Russa with Guido Crosetto and Giorgia Meloni founded Brothers of Italy, a national conservative party split from the PdL because FdI accused Berlusconi and Alfano to be too close with Monti Cabinet. On 4 April 2013, La Russa was appointed President of Brothers of Italy. On 8 March 2014 he was replaced by Giorgia Meloni. Elected in Senate with the 2018 election, La Russa became Vice President of the Senate in the 18th Parliament started on 23 March 2018.
