Romano Prodi is an Italian politician,economist,academic,senior civil servant,and business executive who served as the tenth president of the European Commission from 1999 to 2004. He served twice as Prime Minister of Italy,first from 18 May 1996 to 21 October 1998,and then from 17 May 2006 to 8 May 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 Olive Tree was a denomination used for several successive centre-left political and electoral alliances of Italian political parties from 1995 to 2007.
Democracy is Freedom –The Daisy,commonly known simply as The Daisy,was a centrist political party in Italy. The party was formed from the merger of three parties within the centre-left coalition:the Italian People's Party,The Democrats and Italian Renewal. The party president and leader was Francesco Rutelli,former mayor of Rome and prime ministerial candidate during the 2001 general election for The Olive Tree coalition,within which The Daisy electoral list won 14.5% of the national vote.
Lamberto Dini is an Italian politician and economist. He was the Director General of Bank of Italy from 1979 to 1994,Minister of Treasury from 1994 to 1996,the 51st Prime Minister of Italy from 1995 to 1996,and Foreign Minister from 1996 to 2001.
Pier Luigi Bersani is an Italian politician and was Secretary of the Democratic Party (PD),Italy's leading centre-left party,from 2009 to 2013. Bersani was Minister of Industry,Commerce and Craftmanship from 1996 to 1999,President of Emilia-Romagna from 1993 to 1996,Minister of Transport from 1999 to 2001,and Minister of Economic Development from 2006 to 2008.
Pier Ferdinando Casini is an Italian politician. He served as President of the Chamber of Deputies from 2001 to 2006.
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.
The Italian People's Party was a Christian-democratic,centrist and Christian-leftist political party in Italy. The party was a member of the European People's Party (EPP).
The Democrats was a centrist and social-liberal political party in Italy.
The Democratic Party is a social-democratic political party in Italy. The party's secretary is Elly Schlein,elected in the 2023 leadership election,while the party's president is Stefano Bonaccini.
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.
The Liberal Democrats,whose complete name is Liberal Democrats for Renewal,is a liberal and centrist political party in Italy.
Democratic Union for Consumers was a centrist Italian political party. The party supports consumer protection and trade union rights.
A snap election was held in Italy on 13–14 April 2008. The election came after President Giorgio Napolitano dissolved the Italian Parliament on 6 February 2008,following the defeat of the government of Prime Minister Romano Prodi in a January 2008 Senate vote of confidence and the unsuccessful tentative appointment of Franco Marini with the aim to change the current electoral law. Under Italian law,elections must be held within 70 days of the dissolution. The voting determined the leader of Italy's 62nd government since the end of World War II. The coalition led by ex-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi from The People of Freedom party defeated that of former Mayor of Rome,Walter Veltroni of the Democratic Party.
The Olivists (Ulivisti) are a faction within the Democratic Party (PD),a political party in Italy.
Dario Franceschini is an Italian lawyer,writer,and politician,member of the Democratic Party (PD),of which he briefly became leader in 2009. Franceschini served as Minister of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism,a position that he held from February 2014 to June 2018 and again from September 2019 to October 2022,making him the longest-serving cultural heritage minister in the history of the Italian Republic. Franceschini also served as Minister for Parliamentary Relations from 2013 to 2014.
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.
