Massimo D'Alema

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Massimo D'Alema
Massimo D'Alema
Incumbent
Assumed office 
17 May 2006
Preceded by Gianfranco Fini
In office
21 October 1998 – 25 April 2000
Preceded by Romano Prodi
Succeeded by Giuliano Amato
Born April 20, 1949
Rome, Italy
Political party Democrats of the Left

Massimo D'Alema (born April 20, 1949) is an Italian politician, currently Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Vice Prime Minister of Italy. He is also a journalist, a former prime minister and a former national secretary of the PDS, Partito Democratico della Sinistra. He was initially tipped to become the next President of the Italian Republic once the Chamber of Deputies reconvenes following Romano Prodi's win in the April 2006 elections, but D'Alema himself stepped back endorsing the official candidate of the centre-left coalition Giorgio Napolitano, who then became the 11th President of the Italian Republic.

Immediately following the elections in April 2006, he was proposed as the future President of the Chamber of Deputies. The Communist Refoundation party, however, strongly pushed for Fausto Bertinotti to become the next President. After a couple of days of heated debate, D'Alema stepped back to prevent a fracture between political parties, an act applauded by his allies. The same month, he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs in the new Prodi government.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Massimo D'Alema was born in Rome, the son of Giuseppe D'Alema, an esteemed communist politician. He is married to Linda Giuva, a professor at the University of Siena, and has two children, Giulia and Francesco.

D'Alema first step in politics were in the 1970s as secretary of the Italian Federation of Young Communists (FGCI). He later became a notable member of Italian Communist Party, part of which later gave origin to his current party, Democrats of the Left. In the 1990s he became Head of the Italian government, after the "Tangentopoli" (or "Bribesville") scandals, as the leader of the "Olive Tree" leftist coalition.

As prime minister, he took part in the NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1999. The attack was opposed by Silvio Berlusconi and the right wing opposition as well as by the far left.

In the internal life of his party, mostly during its transition from PCI to PDS, D'Alema stressed that its Communist leanings should be softened, or even replaced by an opening toward Roman Catholic forces, somehow leaving aside the Marxist provenance.

He has been the director of L'Unità, the official PCI's newspaper.

He was Member of the European Parliament for Southern Italy with the Democrats of the Left, part of the Socialist Group, and sat on the European Parliament's Committee on Fisheries and its Committee on Foreign Affairs, until he stood down following his election to the Chamber of Deputies.

[edit] Education

[edit] Career

[edit] Party

  • 1975-1980: National Secretary of the FGCI
  • 1981-1986: Regional Secretary of the PCI in Apulia
  • 1986-1989: Editor of the daily newspaper L'Unità
  • 1986-1992: Member of the PCI/PDS national secretariat
  • 1992-1994: Chairman of the PDS Members of Parliament
  • 1994-1999: leader of the PDS-DS
  • Chairman of the DS
  • since 1996: Vice-Chairman of the Socialist International

[edit] Institutions

[edit] Awards

See also: European Parliament election, 2004 (Italy)

[edit] Books

Massimo D'Alema published eight books, half of which with Mondadori, which is owned by Silvio Berlusconi. He received criticism for this, as he is perceived by part of left-wingers to be too soft on Berlusconi, and the publishing of his books was seen by them as a kind of payback.

[edit] External links

Preceded by:
Achille Occhetto		 Secretary of the Democrats of the Left
1994–1998		 Succeeded by:
Walter Veltroni
Preceded by:
Romano Prodi		 Prime Minister of Italy
1998–2000		 Succeeded by:
Giuliano Amato
Preceded by:
Gianfranco Fini		 Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs
2006 – present		 Incumbent
Prime ministers of Italy
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