Italian Renewal

The Italian Renewal (Italian: Rinnovamento Italiano, RI) was a liberal-centrist political party in Italy.

It was founded in 1996 by Lamberto Dini (the outgoing Prime Minister of Italy) along with some former Liberals, Socialists, Christian Democrats, Republicans and Social Democrats. The party joined the The Olive Tree centre-left coalition led by Romano Prodi

In the 1996 general election RI, that gave hospitality in its lists to the Italian Socialists, Patto Segni and Italian Democratic Movement, won 4.3% of the vote. The party gor 26 seats at the Chamber:

• ten seats went to the Dini's group (Lamberto Dini, Augusto Fantozzi, Tiziano Treu, Natale D'Amico, Ernesto Stajano, Gianni Marongiu, Pierluigi Petrini, Andrea Guarino, Paolo Ricciotti, Lucio Testa);

• eight seats went to the Patto (Diego Masi, Giuseppe Bicocchi, Elisa Pozza Tasca, Gianni Rivera, Antonino Mangiacavallo, Gianantonio Mazzocchin, Bonaventura Lamacchia, Paolo Manca);

• seven seats went to Italian Socialist (Enrico Boselli, Giuseppe Albertini, Enzo Ceremigna, Giovanni Crema, Leone Delfino, Sergio Fumagalli, Roberto Villetti);

• one seat went to Italian Democratic Movement (Aldo Brancati).

The party got 11 seats at the Senate:

• five seats went to Italian Socialist (Ottaviano Del Turco, Livio Besso Cordero, Giovanni Iuliano, Maria Rosaria Manieri, Cesare Marini);

• four seats to the Dini's group (Mario D'Urso, Bianca Maria Fiorillo, Angelo Giorgianni, Adriano Ossicini);

• one seat went to the Patto Segni (Carla Mazzuca Poggiolini);

• one seat went to Italian Democratic Movement (Giovanni Bruni).

After the election Lamberto Dini became Minister of Foreign Affairs and Tiziano Treu minister of Labour in the Prodi I Cabinet.

In 2001–2002 the party joined Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy (DL). RI members in DL formed a faction within the party, named simply Renewal, consisting of around 10% of the party members. In 2007 several members of this association including Dini broke away from DL to form the Liberal Democrats.

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