Antonio Decaro

Antonio Decaro (born 17 July 1970) is an Italian politician and former Mayor of Bari.

Biography
Decaro graduated in engineering from the Polytechnic University of Bari. After a brief work experience as deputy head of the department of the Apulian Aqueduct, he was employed by ANAS in 2000.

In 2004 he was hired by mayor of Bari Michele Emiliano as Councilor for mobility and traffic, distinguishing himself for his environmentalism: Decaro has contributed to the implementation of initiatives and infrastructures that have marked the change in the mobility and traffic policies in Bari. His goal was to empty the city center of cars and redefine the spaces and lifestyle of citizens and commuters.

In 2010 he was elected regional councilor in Apulia as a member of the Democratic Party and was group leader of the party in the regional assembly from 2010 to 2013, when he was elected Deputy after the 2013 elections.

In January 2014, he announced on his Facebook page his intention to run for mayor of Bari. In June, he is elected mayor, with the support of his predecessor Michele Emiliano, the Democratic Party, Left Ecology Freedom, Italy of Values and the Democratic Centre.

On 12 October 2016, Decaro was elected President of the National Association of Italian Comunes, the association of all the mayors of the country.

On 26 May 2019, Decaro ran for re-election as mayor of Bari. He won handily with nearly two-thirds of the vote (66.27%) in the first round, thus avoiding a runoff.

In 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic that ravaged Northern Italy, even though he is mayor of a Southern city, Decaro became a social media star and instant sensation overnight due to his strong-mannered rebukes of citizens who would not respect the stay-at-home rule. Decaro even had Facebook and Instagram fan pages read by women who immediately claimed to be attracted to him because of his online rants appealing to his constituents to comply with the rule became popular.

In 2024, with his second term as mayor coming to an end, Decaro ran for the European Parliament as number two candidate on the Democratic Party list in the Southern Italy constituency. He received 499 661 preference votes in the constituency, only second after Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni (555 720) and was thus elected. In his hometown of Bari, he received 59 339 preference votes - 40% of all votes cast in the city, and besting Meloni by almost 46 000 votes.