[1] Fassino was born in Avigliana, Piedmont (province of Turin), in a traditional socialist family.

His father Eugenio was a partisan, commander of the 41st Garibaldi Brigade, and his paternal grandfather Piero was beaten to death by the Italian Fascists in 1944 because he did not want to reveal his son's hideout, while his maternal grandfather Cesare Grisa was one of the founders of the Italian Socialist Party.

In 1975, he was elected as a Member of the City Council of the Piedmont regional capital, a position he remained in for ten years.

In 2003, Fassino and other high-ranking party members – including Romano Prodi, Lamberto Dini and Walter Veltroni – were accused of taking millions of pounds in backhanders when state-run Telecom Italia bought a 29% stake in Telekom Serbia in 1997.

[4] During his time in office, Fassino asserted that Il Giornale, a right-wing newspaper, published confidential wiretap transcripts shortly before the 2006 election to create the impression that he had exercised improper pressure in the attempted takeover of Banca Nazionale del Lavoro by insurer Unipol in 2005.

In the 2016 elections, he was defeated by Chiara Appendino, who overturned an 11-point gap after the first round to win 55 per cent of the vote.