Massimo D'Alema

Massimo D'Alema (2013)

Massimo D'Alema ( listen ^{? / I} ; born April 20, 1949 in Rome ) is an Italian politician ( PCI , (P) DS , PD , Art.1-MDP ). He was Prime Minister of Italy from October 1998 to April 2000 . From May 2006 to May 2008 he was Italian foreign minister in the second government of Romano Prodi .

Life

D'Alema joined the Federazione Giovanile Comunista Italiana (FGCI), youth organization of the Communist Party of Italy (PCI), in 1963 - at the age of 14 . His father was a functionary and member of this party. From 1967 D'Alema studied literature and philosophy at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa. In 1970 he was elected to the municipal council of Pisa and was there in front of the PCI council group. There he made an alliance with the mayor Elia Lazzari from the left wing of the Christian Democrats and the socialists . From 1975 to 1980, D'Alema was the FGCI's national secretary.

On the XV. At the PCI party congress (1979) he was elected to the party's central committee, which was replaced four years later by a party executive, to which D'Alema belonged until the PCI was dissolved. On the XVII. At the party congress (1986) he was promoted to the secretariat - the party's inner leadership circle - and a year later he became vice-head of the PCI under Achille Occhetto . In 1987 D'Alema was first elected to the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian Parliament, where he represented the constituency of Lecce - Brindisi - Taranto . From 1988 to 1990 he was the editor of the party newspaper L'Unità .

D'Alema in 1996

On the XX. At the PCI party congress in 1991, he and General Secretary Achille Occhetto decided to ensure that the party distanced itself from communism and renamed it Partito Democratico della Sinistra (PDS; Democratic Left Party). In 1994 he replaced Occhetto as chairman of the PDS. The party was renamed "Left Democrats" ( Democratici di Sinistra , DS) in 1998 after uniting with other socialist groups . D'Alema remained party chairman until its dissolution in 2007.

From 1996 to 2001 the PDS or DS was part of the center-left electoral alliance L'Ulivo in the Italian government. D'Alema was Prime Minister of the Cabinet from 1998 to 2000. He was the first former communist to head the Italian government. After the defeat of the center-left parties in the regional elections in April 2000, he resigned and was replaced by the previous Finance Minister Giuliano Amato .

From 2003 to 2012 D'Alema was one of the vice-presidents of the Socialist International . In the European elections in 2004 he was elected to the European Parliament and until April 27, 2006 was also a member of the parliamentary group of the Party of European Socialists (SPE) for the DS . In 2006 he gave up the mandate in the European Parliament to become Italian Foreign Minister in the Prodi II cabinet . He had to give up this office after the Ulivo was defeated in 2008.

After the European elections in 2009 , D'Alema was next to Adrian Severin as a promising candidate for the office of High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy , for which Catherine Ashton was ultimately selected.

From 2010 to 2013 D'Alema was the parliamentary committee for the control of the secret services (COPASIR). As a result of the parliamentary elections in 2013, he resigned from parliament after 26 years in the Chamber of Deputies. Within the PD, D'Alema was an opponent of Matteo Renzi , who was party chairman from 2013 and prime minister from 2014. In particular, he rejected the constitutional reform initiated by Renzi. D'Alema launched a 'no' vote in the 2016 constitutional referendum and appeared in one of the televised debates as the spokesman for the 'no' camp (which ultimately won the referendum).

In February 2017 he left the PD and took part in the founding of the party Articolo 1 - Movimento Democratico e Progressista, positioned further to the left . In the 2018 parliamentary elections , D'Alema ran for a seat in the Italian Senate as a candidate from the left-wing list Liberi e Uguali , but lost.

Awards

• 2007: Great Golden Decoration on Ribbon for Services to the Republic of Austria

Web links

Commons : Massimo D'Alema  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Entry on Massimo D'Alema in the Members' database of the European Parliament

Individual evidence

1. ↑ EurActiv , November 10, 2009: Socialists emerge as top candidates for EU positions ( Memento of November 19, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF, 6.59 MB)

predecessor	Office	successor
Gianfranco Fini	Foreign Minister of Italy 2006–2008	Franco Frattini