Enrico Rossi was born into a working-class family in Bientina on 25th August 1958. After completing his high school diploma at Pontedera classical high school he went on to study at the University of Pisa, enrolling in the Faculty of Philosophy. At the age of 24 he gained his degree with a thesis on the Hungarian philosopher Agnes Heller and in 1985 he started out as a journalist at the Il Tirreno newspaper. He then started to get into local politics in the ranks of the PCI [Italian Communist Party] and became mayor of Pontedera in 1990, managing to secure more than 60% of the votes. Rossi continued in the role of mayor until 1999; in that period his efforts were mainly directed towards preventing the relocation of Piaggio.

From 2000 to 2010 he was a councillor at the health authority of the Tuscan regional council headed by Claudio Martini and in the Tuscan primary elections in 2005 he was the candidate who got the largest number of preferences.

On 29th March 2010 he was elected President of the Tuscan region with 59.7% of the votes, supported by the Democratic Party, Italia dei Valori [Italy of Values], Sinistra Ecologia Libertà [Left Ecology Freedom], and Federazione della Sinistra [the Federation of the Left] and on 16th April he took office as the new president.