Matteo Lepore has been mayor of the Metropolitan City of Bologna since October 2021. His political career started in 1999, when he joined Democratici di Sinistra (Democrats of the Left), which then merged with and became part of the founding of the Partito Democratico (Democratic Party) in 2007. In 2011, he was elected to the City Council of Bologna, and in 2016, was appointed councilor. In 2021, he won the center-left primaries and was elected mayor. He graduated in political sciences from the University of Bologna and has obtained several master’s degrees, both in Italy and abroad: international relations (2007), construction and urban planning (2008), and cooperative economics (2009).