The politics of Italy are conducted through a parliamentary republic with a multi-party system. Italy has been a democratic republic since 2 June 1946,when the monarchy was abolished by popular referendum and a constituent assembly was elected to draft a constitution,which was promulgated on 1 January 1948.
Romano Prodi is an Italian politician who served as President of the European Commission from 1999 to 2004 and twice as Prime Minister of Italy,from 1996 to 1998,and again 2006 to 2008. Prodi is considered the founder of the Italian centre-left and one of the most prominent and iconic figures of the Second Republic. He is often nicknamed Il Professore due to his academic career.
The Democrats of the Left was a social-democratic political party in Italy. Positioned on the centre-left,the DS,successor of the Democratic Party of the Left (PDS) and the Italian Communist Party,was formed in 1998 upon the merger of the PDS with several minor parties. A member of The Olive Tree coalition,the DS was successively led by Massimo D'Alema,Walter Veltroni,and Piero Fassino,and merged with Democracy is Freedom –The Daisy and a number of minor centre-left parties to form the Democratic Party in October 2007.
The Moderates are a centrist political party in Italy,active mainly in Piedmont,but also in Lombardy,Emilia-Romagna,Campania and Sicily. The party,whose leader is Giacomo Portas,is associated with the centrist party Italia Viva.
The Italian Republican Party is a political party in Italy established in 1895,which makes it the oldest political party still active in the country. The PRI identifies with 19th-century classical radicalism,as well as Mazzinianism,and its modern incarnation is associated with liberalism,social liberalism,and centrism. The PRI has old roots and a long history that began with a left-wing position,being the heir of the Historical Far Left and claiming descent from the political thought of Giuseppe Mazzini and Giuseppe Garibaldi. With the rise of the Italian Communist Party and the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) to its left,it was associated with centre-left politics. The early PRI was also known for its anti-clerical,anti-monarchist,republican,and later anti-fascist stances. While maintaining those traits,during the second half of the 20th century the party moved towards the centre on the left–right political spectrum,becoming increasingly economically liberal.
Piero Franco Rodolfo Fassino is an Italian politician with the Democratic Party. He was Mayor of Turin from 2011 until 2016 and is a former national secretary of the Democrats of the Left party.
Fausto Bertinotti is an Italian politician who led the Communist Refoundation Party from 1994 to 2006. On 29 April 2006,after the centre-left coalition's victory in the Italian general election,he was elected President of the Chamber of Deputies,a position he held until 2008.
The Italian Socialist Party was a social-democratic and democratic-socialist political party in Italy,whose history stretched for longer than a century,making it one of the longest-living parties of the country. Founded in Genoa in 1892,the PSI was from the beginning a big tent of Italy's political left and socialism,ranging from the revolutionary socialism of Andrea Costa to the Marxist-inspired reformist socialism of Filippo Turati and the anarchism of Anna Kuliscioff. Under Turati's leadership,the party was a frequent ally of the Italian Republican Party and the Italian Radical Party at the parliamentary level,while lately entering in dialogue with the remnants of the Historical Left and the Liberal Union during Giovanni Giolitti's governments to ensure representation for the labour movement and the working class. In the 1900s and 1910s,the PSI achieved significant electoral success,becoming Italy's first party in 1919 and during the country's Biennio Rosso in 1921,when it was victim of violent paramilitary activities from the far right,and was not able to move the country in the revolutionary direction it wanted.
The Democratic Party of the Left was a democratic-socialist and social-democratic political party in Italy. Founded in February 1991 as the post-communist evolution of the Italian Communist Party,the party was the largest in the Alliance of Progressives and The Olive Tree coalitions. In February 1998,the party merged with minor parties to form Democrats of the Left. At its peak in 1991,the party had a membership of 989,708;by 1998,it was reduced to 613,412.
The 1996 Italian general election was held on 21 April 1996 to elect members of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Republic. Romano Prodi,leader of the centre-left The Olive Tree,won the election,narrowly defeating Silvio Berlusconi,who led the centre-right Pole for Freedoms.
Mario Clemente Mastella is an Italian politician who has been the mayor of Benevento since 20 June 2016. He also served as leader of the Union of Democrats for Europe (UDEUR),a minor centrist and Christian-democratic Italian party. Mastella,who began his career in the Christian Democracy (DC) party,being elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1976,is known for his trasformismo,changing over his career many political parties and affiliations.
Arturo Parisi is an Italian politician,leader of the Ulivist faction of the Democratic Party and a four-time member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies. He was also minister of defence in the cabinet of Prime Minister Romano Prodi from 2006 to 2008.
Cesare Damiano is an Italian politician,member of the Democratic Party.
The second Prodi government was the cabinet of the government of Italy from 17 May 2006 to 8 May 2008,a total of 722 days,or 1 year,11 months and 21 days. The 59th cabinet of the Italian Republic,it was the only cabinet of the XV Legislature.
Massimo D'Alema is an Italian politician and journalist who was the 53rd prime minister of Italy from 1998 to 2000. He was Deputy Prime Minister of Italy and Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2006 to 2008. D'Alema also served for a time as national secretary of the Democratic Party of the Left (PDS). Earlier in his career,D'Alema was a member of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) and was the first former Communist party member to become prime minister of a NATO country and the only former PCI prime minister of Italy. Due to his first name and for his dominant position in the left-wing coalitions during the Second Republic,he is referred to as Leader Maximo. He is also the author of several books.
Claudio Burlando is an Italian politician,and was President of Liguria,until 31 March 2015. He is a member of the Democratic Party,and a former Democrats of the Left member.
Barbara Pollastrini is an Italian politician and university professor.
Anna Finocchiaro Fidelbo is an Italian politician. She was the Democratic Party's leader in the Senate from 2007 to 2013. She served as Minister for Equal Opportunities in the cabinet of Romano Prodi from 1996 to 1998.
The Communist Refoundation Party is a communist political party in Italy that emerged from a split of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in 1991. The party's secretary is Maurizio Acerbo,who replaced Paolo Ferrero in 2017. Armando Cossutta was the party's founder,while Fausto Bertinotti its longest-serving leader (1994–2008). The latter transformed the PRC from a traditional communist party into a collection of radical social movements.
The centre-left coalition is a political alliance of political parties in Italy active under several forms and names since 1995,when The Olive Tree was formed under the leadership of Romano Prodi. The centre-left coalition has ruled the country for more than fifteen years between 1996 and 2022;to do so,it had mostly to rely on a big tent that went from the more radical left-wing,which had more weight between 1996 and 2008,to the political centre,which had more weight during the 2010s,and its main parties were also part of grand coalitions and national unity governments.
