Innocenzo Leontini was born in Ispica (RG) on 25/05/1959. He started his political activity as a member of the Italian Socialist Party and during the '70s he was one of the leaders of its Youth Movement. He was City Councillor, Councillor, Deputy Mayor and, finally, Mayor of Ispica from 1991 to 1993. He joined Forza Italia in 1994 and in 1996, was elected to the Sicilian Regional Assembly (ARS). He was appointed Regional Councillor for Public Health in 1998. In 2001 he was re-elected obtaining 12,714 preferential votes in the constituency of the province of Ragusa. He took over the role of Forza Italia's Chairman in the ARS until August 2004 when he joined the Regional Government of the Sicilian Region as Regional Councillor for Agriculture and Forestry. In 2006 and 2008, he was re-elected to the ARS, first with 15,594 preferential votes with Forza Italia and then with 13,040 preferential votes with the Popolo delle Libertà (PDL). From 2008 to 2012, Leontini held the position of Chairman of the Parliamentary Group of the PDL at the ARS. In May 2014, he was on the Forza Italia list for the European Elections obtaining 48,189 preferential votes that earned him, following the election of Salvo Pogliese as Mayor of Catania, the right to succeed Pogliese in the European Parliament. He has worked as a university lecturer in the History of Italian Literature. He also holds a degree in Political Science and cultivates a passion for music as a jazz pianist.