Giovanni Saverio Furio "Gianni" Pittella (born 19 November 1958) is an Italian politician who served as Leader of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats Group from 2014 to 2018 and Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Italy from 1999 to 2018.

[3][4][5] Following the political career of his father, Pittella was a member of the Italian Socialist Party, Labour Federation, and Democrats of the Left.

[6] In 2013, Pittella was a member of the national leadership council of the Democratic Party, then led by Pier Luigi Bersani.

In 2014, he added over 100,000 votes to his 2009 result, placing him ahead of party-colleague Pina Picierno, the candidate hand-picked by the then Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi to lead the Democratic Party list in the European Parliament's Southern Italy constituency representing Sicily and the other Italian islands.

He was previously a member of the delegation for relations with Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, and Kosovo (2009–2014), with Australia and New Zealand (2002–2004), and with Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia (1999–2002).

[11] Earlier in 2012 while still in Brussels, Pittella had introduced Simona Mangiante to Joseph Mifsud, an academic from Malta reportedly with high level ties with the Russian government.

[12][nb 1] Pittella attended the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia to watch the nomination of Hillary Clinton.

By the end of the week, Pittella urged Americans to not vote for Donald Trump, saying: "Europe needs the U.S. We need Hillary Clinton.

Besides his political work, he is the author of several books, including among others on the future and challenges of the European project, such as Rosso Antico (1996), Diario di bordo (1997), Sparlare, parlare, pensare (1998), Eurodiario (1999–2000), Il Triangolo della ricchezza (2003), Europ@ (2004), Dal Sud in Europa con te (2004), Partiti europei e gruppi politici nel nuovo europarlamento dell'Unione a 25 (2004), Un'Europa per i cittadini (2006), and Brief History of the Future of the United States of Europe (2013).

He is also a visiting professor at the University of East Anglia's London Academy of Diplomacy and ex-officio member of the bureau of the Fondation européenne d'études progressistes (FEPS).