Gianfranco Morgando

Gianfranco Morgando was born on 20 December 1949 in Borgiallo, a small comune in the Canavese area of the province of Turin, Piedmont. At his funeral the bishop emeritus of Pinerolo, Pier Giorgio Debernardi, said his roots were firmly planted in a profoundly Christian family, where he learned that love is a gift. He stayed attached to Borgiallo and the Canavese all his life, and his political career began in the town halls of Borgiallo and nearby Cuorgnè.

Morgando graduated in political science (laurea in scienze politiche). The university and year of graduation have not been made public in the sources consulted. His real political education came in the Forze Nuove current of the Christian Democrats, at its Turin headquarters in via Stampatori under Carlo Donat-Cattin, and from Guido Bodrato.

Morgando began as a Christian Democrat (DC) municipal administrator in Borgiallo and Cuorgnè. In 1985 he was elected to the Provincial Council of Turin and became assessore for education, later taking the budget portfolio.

He was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1992 (XI legislature) for the DC, serving on the Labour committee, the elections board and as secretary of the special committee on parliamentary immunity reform. In 1994 he co-founded the Partito Popolare Italiano and became its first regional secretary in Piedmont; he lost the Ivrea seat for the Patto per l'Italia that year.

In 1996 he won the Torino 7 single-member constituency for the Ulivo and headed the PPI economic department until 1998. He served as undersecretary for Industry, Commerce and Crafts in the first and second D'Alema governments (from 21 October 1998 to 26 April 2000), briefly covering Foreign Trade in December 1999, and as undersecretary for the Treasury, Budget and Economic Planning in the second Amato government (April 2000 to June 2001).

Re-elected in 2001, he led the Margherita members on the Chamber's Budget committee. From 2006 to 2008 he was a senator for Piedmont in the Ulivo (later PD-Ulivo) group, sitting on the Budget committee and in the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly delegation.

On 14 October 2007 he won the primary to become the first regional secretary of the Partito Democratico in Piedmont, beating Gianluca Susta, and was reconfirmed in 2009 against Cesare Damiano and Roberto Tricarico. He resigned in 2013 over the lack of Piedmontese members in Enrico Letta's government. He later directed the Fondazione Carlo Donat-Cattin in Turin, of which he was a founding member.

Morgando was married to Carmen. They had a son, Andrea, who has a family of his own. He also had a sister, Teresina, and a brother, Severino. Colleagues described him as reserved and essential in character, deeply attached to his family and to the Canavese, and a practising Catholic.

Morgando belonged to the tradition of Catholic democracy and Catholic social teaching (cattolicesimo popolare e sociale), shaped by Carlo Donat-Cattin's Forze Nuove current, which put work and the representation of working people at its centre. He believed political parties were schools of democracy and, as Monica Canalis recalled, insisted that the political project comes before any individual's career and that political cultures remain necessary so that politics is not reduced to pragmatism or a struggle for power. He was known for seeking convergence rather than confrontation, and for distrust of social media and instant declarations.

Obituaries called him the last heir of the DC tradition in Piedmont and one of the figures who carried Catholic democratic culture from the Christian Democrats through the PPI and the Margherita into the Partito Democratico. He mentored a generation of Turin centre-left leaders, including Stefano Lo Russo, who became mayor of Turin, and Daniele Valle. Piero Fassino praised his moral rigour, political passion and "the patience of the builder", and Arturo Parisi remembered him as faithful both to his political past and to the new future they chose together. Party members even coined the joking verb "morgandare" for his habit of patiently deferring decisions.

No state honours or formal awards for Morgando were found in the sources consulted. His most visible recognition came from his peers: tributes from former ministers Piero Fassino and Arturo Parisi, from the mayor of Turin, and from the Fondazione Carlo Donat-Cattin, which thanked him for years of counsel, intelligence and preparation.

As regional PD secretary Morgando appeared regularly in videos published by the Piedmont PD and by the national party channel Youdem TV, speaking on local autonomy, party lists, regional assemblies, the future of RAI and local publishing, and at the PD national assembly and national leadership meetings. He avoided social media and is not known to have run personal X, Facebook or Instagram accounts.

Morgando had been ill for months with a blood disease, reported as leukaemia, and was being treated at the cancer institute in Candiolo, near Turin, though he attended the Festa dell'Unità in Turin in September 2026. In the night of 20 to 21 October 2026 his condition worsened with pneumonia and he died of a respiratory crisis, aged 76, two months before his 77th birthday. His funeral took place on Saturday 24 October 2026 at the parish church of San Nicolao Vescovo in Borgiallo, celebrated by Don Varghese Sheejan Joseph Kalathiparambil and bishop emeritus Pier Giorgio Debernardi, with Turin mayor Stefano Lo Russo, Borgiallo mayor Franca Cargnello and regional councillors Alberto Avetta, Monica Canalis and Mauro Fava among the mourners. His burial place has not been made public.