Giancarlo Cito, 79, former mayor of the Apulian city and parliamentarian in the 1990s, died in a Taranto hospital after suffering from a serious illness. After a period in the Italian Social Movement, from which he was expelled for extreme positions, Cito founded and directed several local TV stations, including Antenna Taranto 6, where he became known for his fiercely critical commentary on local politics. He is regarded as the first populist politician of the postwar period. Cito served as Taranto's mayor from 1993 to 1996, and as the Southern Action League's deputy from 1996 to 2001. At the end of the 1990s, he served as honorary president of Taranto Football. His political career was later halted by a conviction for external involvement in a mafia organization. "He was, in essence, the prototype of modern populism, post-Mussolini, a blend of fascism, revanchism, machismo, proletarian resentment, and contempt for institutions and elites", wrote his biographer Stefano Maria Bianchi.