| The Honourable Massimo D'Alema |
|
|---|---|
| 77th Prime Minister of Italy | |
| In office 21 October 1998 – 25 April 2000 |
|
| President | Oscar Luigi Scalfaro Carlo Azeglio Ciampi |
| Deputy | Sergio Mattarella |
| Preceded by | Romano Prodi |
| Succeeded by | Giuliano Amato |
| Minister of Foreign Affairs | |
| In office 17 May 2006 – 8 May 2008 |
|
| Prime Minister | Romano Prodi |
| Deputy | Ugo Intini Patrizia Sentinelli Franco Danieli |
| Preceded by | Gianfranco Fini |
| Succeeded by | Franco Frattini |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 20 April 1949 Rome, Italy |
| Political party | Democratic Party (since 2007) |
| Other political affiliations |
Communist Party (Before 1991) Democratic Party of the Left (1991–1998) Democrats of the Left (1998–2007) |
| Spouse(s) | Linda Giuva |
| Children | Giulia D'Alema Francesco D'Alema |
| Residence | Rome, Italy |
| Alma mater | Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa (Incomplete) |
| Profession | Journalist |
Massimo D'Alema (born 20 April 1949[1]) is an Italian politician. He is also a journalist and a former national secretary of the Democratic Party of the Left (PDS). He was the 77th Prime Minister from 1998 to 2000, and later he was Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2006 to 2008.
Contents |
Massimo D'Alema was born in Rome,[1] the son of Giuseppe D'Alema, a communist politician. He is married to Linda Giuva, a professor at the University of Siena, and has two children, Giulia and Francesco. He is an atheist.[2]
D'Alema's first steps 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 (PCI), part of which in 1991 gave origin to the Democratic Party of the Left (PDS), and in 1998 to the Democrats of the Left (DS). In 1998, succeeding Romano Prodi, he became Prime Minister, as the leader of The Olive Tree centre-left coalition. He was the first former Communist to become prime minister of a NATO country.
While D'Alema was Prime Minister, Italy took part in the NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1999. The attack was supported by Silvio Berlusconi and the centre-right opposition, but the far left strongly contested it.
In the internal life of his party, mostly during its transition from PCI to PDS, D'Alema stressed that its roots in Marxism should be renovated, with the aim to create a modern European social-democratic party.
He has been the director of L'Unità, formerly the official newspaper of the Italian Communist Party, which since became the newspaper of the Democrats of the Left.
D'Alema was Member of the European Parliament for Southern Italy with the Democrats of the Left, part of the Party of European Socialists 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 Italian Chamber of Deputies.
Following Romano Prodi's win in the April 2006 election, D'Alema was initially tipped to become President of the Italian Republic once the Chamber of Deputies reconvened, but D'Alema himself stepped back, endorsing the official candidate of the centre-left coalition, Giorgio Napolitano, who was elected. Immediately following the April 2006 election, 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 as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs in the new Prodi government. He served in those posts until 2008, when Prodi's government fell and Berlusconi's right-wing coalition prevailed in the election that followed in April 2008. D'Alema was re-elected to the Chamber of Deputies in this election as part of the recently formed Democratic Party.[1]
While Italian Foreign Minister in the 2006-2008 Romano Prodi center-left government, Massimo D'Alema took a very pro-active diplomatic stance during the 2006 Lebanon War. Italy led negotiations with the Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni and was proposed by Israel to head the multinational peacekeeping mission Unifil, although the dangers of the mission for Italian troops sparked warnings from the center-right opposition that it could prove a "kamikaze" mission, with the peacekeepers sandwiched between Israel and the well-armed Hezbollah.[3] D’Alema pledged Italy’s willingness to enforce the United Nations resolution on Lebanon and urged other European Union member states to do the same because the stability of the Middle East should be a chief concern for Europeans.[4]
He shortly was a Member of the European Parliament, from 2004 to 2006. Since 2003 he is member of the scientific committee of Michel Rocard and Dominique Strauss-Kahn' association "A gauche en Europe". He is still audible on the European scene, he proved so by signing the Soros letter ('As concerned Europeans') and calling for a stronger European integration[5].
See also: European Parliament election, 2004 (Italy)
Massimo D'Alema published eight books, half of which with Mondadori, which is controlled by Fininvest, the family holding company of 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.
| Italian Chamber of Deputies | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Title jointly held |
Deputy 1987–present |
Incumbent |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by Achille Occhetto |
Secretary of the Democrats of the Left 1994–1998 |
Succeeded by Walter Veltroni |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by Romano Prodi |
Prime Minister of Italy 1998–2000 |
Succeeded by Giuliano Amato |
| Preceded by Gianfranco Fini |
Minister of Foreign Affairs 2006–2008 |
Succeeded by Franco Frattini |
| Preceded by Gianfranco Fini |
Deputy Prime Minister of Italy 2006–2008 Served alongside: Francesco Rutelli |
Vacant |
| Preceded by Giulio Tremonti |
||
| Preceded by Francesco Rutelli |
President of COPASIR since 2010 |
Incumbent |