Matteo Renzi

Matteo Renzi (2015)

Matteo Renzi (born January 11, 1975 in Florence ) is an Italian politician . He was chairman of the Partito Democratico (PD) from 2013 to 2018 and president of the Council of Ministers of the Italian Republic from February 2014 to December 2016 . Since September 2019 he has been the leader of the Italia Viva party, which he founded .

From 2004 to 2009 he was President of the Province of Florence , then Mayor of the City of Florence until 2014 . In a basic vote among the party supporters, Renzi was elected chairman (segretario) of the Partito Democratico on December 8, 2013 . From February 2014 he headed a center-left coalition of Italian leaders. After the failure of a constitutional reform he was striving for , Renzi resigned as Prime Minister in December 2016. After the parliamentary elections in March 2018 , he also gave up the party chairmanship.

Private life and professional career

Renzi grew up in Rignano sull'Arno , where his parents lived. His father Tiziano was from 1985 to 2002 councilor of the Democrazia Cristiana or the Partito Popolare Italiano (PPI) in this city.

Matteo Renzi studied at the University of Florence, he participated in the 1999 with a degree in Law and graduated with diploma. After completing his studies, he worked for the marketing company CHIL srl (now CHIL Post srl ) founded by his father in Genoa ; From 1999 to 2004, he and his sister held the majority share in the company.

Renzi has been married to high school teacher Agnese Landini (* 1977) since 1999 and has three children.

Political career

Renzi's political career began as a student. In 1996 he took part in the founding of the Comitati per Prodi in support of Romano Prodi's election campaign and joined the PPI, of which he became chairman for the province of Florence in 1999. In 2002 the PPI was part of the newly founded party La Margherita - Democrazia è Libertà . Renzi also became coordinator and later chairman for the province of Florence for this party .

Provincial President and Mayor

From 2004 to 2009 he was President of the Province of Florence . After the Margherita merged with the post-communist social democratic Democratici di Sinistra to form the Partito Democratico (PD) in 2007, Renzi became a member of the new party.

On February 15, 2009, he took part in the PD primaries for the office of Mayor of Florence and won with 40.52% of the vote. On 21/22 In June 2009 he was elected Mayor of Florence with 59.96% of the vote. In the same year he was elected to the extended board of the PD.

In December 2010, Renzi sparked heated discussions when he visited Silvio Berlusconi in his villa in Arcore for a conversation. Renzi repeatedly denied any closeness to Berlusconi, also because Berlusconi expressed his sympathy for the mayor of Florence during the 2012 primaries.

In 2011 he was the most popular mayor of Italy, according to a survey by the newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore .

In the primaries for the top candidate of the center-left alliance for the parliamentary elections in Italy 2013 , Renzi achieved the second-best result in the first round on November 25, 2012 with 35.5%; he lost the runoff election on December 2nd with 39.1% clearly against Pier Luigi Bersani (60.9%) and assured Bersani full support in the election campaign.

After the parliamentary elections at the end of February 2013 there was a government crisis because PD party leader Bersani was unable to form a minority government without Silvio Berlusconi. He then resigned from the party leadership. Renzi accused Bersani and the rest of the party leadership to be hesitant when attempting to form a government, advocated quick elections and declared that he would run again for the office of the top candidate in internal party primaries. This triggered a heated discussion within the party. Bersani's supporters accused Renzi of being against a minority government led by the PD and in favor of new elections for personal reasons. On April 24, 2013, President Giorgio Napolitano commissioned Enrico Letta - the deputy head of the PD - with the formation of a government, which he succeeded: The Letta cabinet was sworn in on April 28, 2013.

Chairman of the PD

In December 2013, Renzi took over the chairmanship of the Partito Democratico as the successor to Guglielmo Epifani . He received 68 percent of the vote in the primary election , even though Prime Minister Letta Renzi's opponent Gianni Cuperlo had supported.

Matteo Renzi describes himself - in relation to the "old" elites - as "rottamatore" (from Italian rottamare "to scrap"). This nickname is based on his reputation that he wanted to "wind up" the entire Italian political establishment , which in large parts of the Italian public is seen as discredited, corrupted and failed. Its rise is seen by observers as a sign of a much-needed generation change. He was supported by a large amount of popular support and, in his first year in office, enjoyed by far the highest approval rating of politicians in the country. He describes himself as "extremely ambitious". In the press he was also called " Speedy Gonzalez of Italian Politics". In terms of content, Renzi represents politically moderate positions. He represents both the left Catholic and the social democratic tradition of his party. While his predecessors had long hesitated to make the Partito Democratico a full member of the Social Democratic Party of Europe , Renzi took this step very quickly after his election as party leader in 2014.

Renzi remained party chairman until February 2017 during his tenure as prime minister. He then resigned from the party chairmanship, but was re-elected to this post in late April 2017. He prevailed against Justice Minister Andrea Orlando and the regional president of Apulia , Michele Emiliano .

His leadership style and his liberal reform course repeatedly led to internal party conflicts and to the resignation of Renzi opponents from the left wing of the party. Giuseppe Civati resigned in May 2015 and Stefano Fassina resigned in June 2015 . Both founded their own small parties: Possibile and Futuro a Sinistra . The biggest wave of resignation of prominent PD politicians came in February 2017 when the former party chairman Pier Luigi Bersani , the former prime minister Massimo D'Alema and Roberto Speranza left the PD to found the party Articolo 1 - Movimento Democratico e Progressista. The various groups on the left of the PD ran for the 2018 parliamentary elections in the Liberi e Uguali (“the free and equal”) alliance .

Term of office as Prime Minister

Renzi with President Napolitano at his swearing-in on February 22, 2014

On February 14, 2014, Letta submitted his resignation from the office of President of the Council of Ministers after Renzi had vehemently urged him to do so as a result of the clear election as party leader and an intra-party vote on the demand for a new government. On February 17, 2014, Renzi was commissioned by President Napolitano to form a new government. On February 22, 2014, he and his cabinet were sworn in as the new President of the Council of Ministers.

At the beginning of his term in office, Renzi promised to implement “one reform every month”. In September 2014 he presented a “1000-day program”. The website Passo dopo Passo (in German: step-by-step) provides information on the status of the reforms . The National Reform Program of Italy is part of the " Europe 2020 " strategy of the European Commission (see web links ).

A reform of the criminal law followed in August 2014, and a reform of the civil law was passed in November 2014. The new laws aim to speed up the process of the Italian judiciary. Among other things, the vacation days for judges were reduced from 45 to 30 days.

There were diplomats in Brussels who had the impression that Renzi was not interested in Europe. In October 2014, Renzi had a warning letter from Currency Commissioner Jyrki Katainen to the Italian Finance Minister Pier Carlo Padoan published as “strictly confidential” .

During his tenure, Renzi implemented a labor market reform called the Jobs Act in December 2014 . This includes, for example, a relaxation of the protection against dismissal and tax breaks for companies if they create new permanent positions. In addition, social security in the event of unemployment has been improved, while at the same time disciplinary measures have been introduced to oblige the unemployed to look for a job or gain further qualifications. Renzi explained that Italy's weak growth was the result of Germany's austerity .

After a year in office, Renzi's popularity was high, despite a lot of resistance from, for example, the opposition, his own PD party and those affected by reform projects. In February 2015, Renzi had approval ratings of around 50%.

Matteo Renzi at the announcement of his cabinet on February 21, 2014

In May 2015, the so-called Italicum, a reform of the electoral law, which should enable more stable governments. A party automatically gets 340 out of 630 seats (55%), i.e. an absolute majority, in the Chamber of Deputies if it receives more than 40% of the votes in the election. If neither party succeeds, there is a runoff election between the two largest parties. In addition, threshold clauses were introduced.

On May 21, 2015, parliament approved an anti-corruption law. Among other things, it is intended to combat falsification of accounts and corruption .

In July 2015, an educational reform called La Buona Scuola was passed, including: gave the school principals more independence, for example in selecting teachers and awarding bonuses. The amount of the teachers' salaries was then no longer based on their years of service, but on "performance", which should be assessed by students, teachers and parents. 100,000 temporary teachers with fixed-term contracts received permanent contracts. Internships to prepare for a career became mandatory. There should be more foreign language lessons, art history and music became compulsory again. Knowledge in the areas of law, economics, IT, entrepreneurship and dealing with social networks were introduced as new learning objectives. From the beginning of the new school year in September 2015, the unions announced protests, particularly against the introduction of the performance principle. In addition, new school buildings were to be built and old buildings were to be renovated with 3.7 billion euros by 2017. In July 2015, the polls for Renzi were around 31 percent.

On October 13, 2015, the Senate approved a constitutional reform with the so-called Legge Boschi . The Senate should be reduced from 315 to 100 senators, the Prime Minister should only be elected by the House of Representatives. In the case of new laws, based on the German Bundesrat, the Senate should only be involved in decision-making when it comes to the Italian regions, "constitutional changes, the right to vote, referendums and EU issues". Further votes in parliament and the Senate as well as a referendum were necessary for the law on constitutional reform to come into force.

By privatizing state-owned companies, Renzi's government wanted to lower the national debt of around 2,000 billion euros. To this end, around 38% of the Italian Post Poste Italiane was floated on the stock exchange for 3.4 billion euros in October 2015 . The majority owner remained the Ministero delle Finanze ( Italian Ministry of Finance ). In the first half of 2016, the air navigation service provider ENAV SpA should go public. An IPO of the Italian State Railways was planned for the second half of 2016 . Around 40% of the shares should be sold by the state to investors. The rail network was separated from the company before the IPO and is to remain in public hands.

In December 2015, a reform of the public service broadcaster Radiotelevisione Italiana (RAI) was passed. The supervisory board previously designated 7/9 by the “parliamentary RAI commission” ( Commissione di Vigilanza ) has been reduced from 9 to 7 people. Parliament, the Senate and the government each determine two members of the Supervisory Board ; One member comes from the RAI workforce. The chairman of the supervisory board is elected by the supervisory board and has to be confirmed by the Commissione di Vigilanza with a 2/3 majority . The government is thus gaining influence at the expense of the parties. The previous role of the RAI General Director will be transformed into a managing director with extended powers (similar to a CEO ). He is allowed to determine larger sums on his own and is given more autonomy in the nomination of executives.

In May 2016, Renzi implemented a law to introduce same-sex partnerships similar to the German Civil Partnership Act . In the future, homosexual couples will include in tax and inheritance matters largely or completely treated like spouses and can take the partner's last name. Until then, Italy was the last Western European country in which there was neither a legal framework for homosexual partnerships nor regulations for marriages without a marriage license.

The constitutional reform sought by Renzi failed in the referendum on December 4, 2016 with 41% yes- versus 59% no-votes. The very next day, Renzi submitted his resignation to President Sergio Mattarella . However, the latter asked him to remain in office until the Italian budget was approved. The budget was adopted on December 7, 2016. Renzi's resignation on the same day, Mattarella accepted with reservations. Renzi remained in office until December 12, 2016, when Paolo Gentiloni was sworn in as the new head of government.

Founding your own party

After the PD's defeat in the parliamentary elections in March 2018 , Renzi also resigned as party chairman. In September 2019, Renzi announced the exit from the Democratic Party and the establishment of a new party called Italia Viva . This put an end to the discussions about himself, which had caused unrest in the party since his resignation as Prime Minister in December 2016. Renzi joined a total of around 40 parliamentarians from the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. Among those who have joined Renzi are ministers Elena Bonetti and Teresa Bellanova and State Secretary Ivan Scalfarotto, several members of the Giuseppe Contes government . According to his own statements in 2019, Renzi wanted to continue to support the Prime Minister.

In January 2021, the two IV ministers abstained from the vote on the EU reconstruction program amounting to almost 230 billion euros. Renzi criticized that the EU because of the COVID-19 pandemic in grants and low-interest loans promised funds thinly to clientele groups are to be distributed. He calls for them to be used for a fundamental structural change in the economy, society and administration.

Publications

• 2011: Fuori! ("Out!"). Rizzoli Publishing House ; German: Get out! Politics with an open face. Britzer Hufeisen-Verlag, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-942386-01-2 .
• 2012: Style Novo. Rizzoli Publishing House.
• 2013: Oltre la Rottamazione (“Beyond Scrapping” / “Beyond Scrapping”). Mondadori Publishing House , ISBN 978-88-04-64237-4 .
• 2017: Avanti. Perché l'Italia non si ferma (Forward. Because Italy does not stand still), Publisher: Feltrinelli, ISBN 978-88-07-17313-4 .

Web links

Commons : Matteo Renzi  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Website Matteo Renzis (Italian)
• Literature by and about Matteo Renzi in the catalog of the German National Library
• Hans-Jürgen Schlamp: Italy's political hope Renzi: The year of the scrapper. In: Spiegel Online . January 11, 2014
• Passo dopo Passo: We are changing Italy step by step. Official homepage about the progress of the Renzi reforms (Italian).
• European Commission: Europe 2020 in Italy - National Reform Program (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Renzi Riparte con 'Italia Viva': è la nostra nuova sfida - Politica. September 17, 2019, accessed September 22, 2019 (Italian). 
2. ^ Primary Pd, è il trionfo di Renzi: sfiora il 70% dei voti. In: La Repubblica . December 8, 2013, accessed December 8, 2013 . 
3. ^ Ministero dell'Interno, Dipartimento degli Affari Interni e Territoriali: Renzi Tiziano. In: Ministry of the Interior website, accessed December 3, 2012.
4. ↑ Cause e fallimenti aziendali: i danni di papà Renzi. ( Memento of April 13, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) In: laretenonperdona.it. June 16, 2013.
5. ^ Agnese Landini: Chi è la moglie di Matteo Renzi, Sindaco di Firenze e nuovo segretario el Pd. In: ilsussidiario.net. December 9, 2013.
6. ↑ Profile on the Partito Democratico page  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .  
7. ↑ Francesco In: Renzi-Berlusconi ad Arcore, Il Cavaliere: "Tu mi somigli". In: La Repubblica. December 7, 2010, accessed December 3, 2012 . 
8. ↑ Primarie Cs, Berlusconi: "Spero vinca Renzi." In: La Repubblica. December 7, 2010, accessed December 3, 2012 . 
9. ^ Gianni Trovati: È il fiorentino Renzi il sindaco più amato d'Italia. In: Il Sole 24 Ore . January 10, 2011, accessed December 3, 2012 . 
10. ↑ Speciale Primarie Centrosinistra. November 2012. In: La Repubblica. Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso, accessed February 24, 2013 . 
11. ↑ Primary, Bersani stravince: oltre il 60%. In: La Repubblica. December 2, 2012, accessed December 3, 2012 . 
12. ↑ Bersani leads center-left alliance in parliamentary elections 2013. In: Die Zeit . December 3, 2012, archived from the original on February 23, 2014 ; Retrieved December 3, 2012 . 
13. ↑ Renzi: "ingiusto attac carmi avverto molta amarezza." In: La Repubblica. April 15, 2013.
14. ↑ Matteo Renzi is the new head of the Democratic Party. In: The time . December 9, 2013, accessed January 5, 2014 . 
15. ↑ See the book title in David Allegranti: Matteo Renzi: Il rottamatore del Pd
16. ^ Profiles: Florence mayor Matteo Renzi. In: BBC Europe Online. February 13, 2014.
17. ↑ Matteo Renzi wants to become Italian premier. In: Salzburger Nachrichten Online. February 14, 2014.
18. ↑ Ex-Prime Minister Renzi resigns as party leader. Spiegel Online, February 19, 2017, accessed April 30, 2017.
19. ↑ Renzi managed to be re-elected as chairman of his PD party. Der Standard, April 30, 2017, accessed on the same day.
20. ^ Jörg Bremer: Prime Minister Letta resigns. In: FAZ.net . February 13, 2014, accessed January 6, 2017 . 
21. ^ Jörg Bremer: Resignation with announcement. In: FAZ.net . February 13, 2014, accessed January 6, 2017 . 
22. ^ Italy: Napolitano instructs Matteo Renzi to form a government. In: zeit.de . February 17, 2014, accessed January 6, 2017 . 
23. ↑ Renzi takes his oath of office in Rome. In: tagesschau.de . February 22, 2014, archived from the original on February 24, 2014 ; accessed on February 22, 2014 . 
24. ↑ Passo dopo Passo. In: passodopopasso.italia.it. Retrieved January 6, 2017 (Italian). 
25. ^ Katja Rieth: Italy. Renzi check. In: https://www.daserste.de/ . October 13, 2014, archived from the original on September 30, 2015 ; accessed on September 29, 2015 . 
26. ^ National Reform Program. (PDF; 124 kB) Timetable NRP 2015. In: http://ec.europa.eu/ . April 2015, accessed October 5, 2015 . 
27. ↑ Werner Mussler, Tobias Piller: Renzi's fun with the EU. In: FAZ.net . October 24, 2014, accessed January 6, 2017 . 
28. ↑ Andrea Spalinger: Reforms in Italy: Better opportunities for young Italians. In: nzz.ch. April 27, 2015, accessed January 6, 2017 . 
29. ^ Renzi makes the Schröder: On the current labor market reforms in Italy. In: nachdenkseiten.de. March 11, 2015, accessed January 6, 2017 . 
30. ↑ Tobias Piller, Italy goes crazy , in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , December 1, 2018. p. 14.
31. ^ Tilmann Kleinjung: Italy's Prime Minister Renzi in office for one year. High flyer with starting difficulties. In: https://www.tagesschau.de/ . February 22, 2015, accessed September 29, 2015 . 
32. ^ Katharina Kort: Italy creates electoral reform. The unstoppable Matteo Renzi. In: http://www.handelsblatt.com/ . May 5, 2015, accessed September 29, 2015 . 
33. ^ Jan-Christoph Kitzler: Italy's parliament approves Renzi's project. New suffrage strengthens the election winner. In: https://www.tagesschau.de/ . May 4, 2015, accessed September 29, 2015 . 
34. ↑ Graphic representation and explanation of the new electoral system on the homepage of the Italian Chamber of Deputies
35. ^ Alessio Terzi: Corruptionomics in Italy. May 27, 2015, accessed October 5, 2015 . 
36. ^ Regina Kerner: Education Policy. Teachers in Italy are in storm. In: http://www.fr-online.de/ . June 28, 2015, accessed September 29, 2015 . 
37. ↑ Italy and Europe. Matteo Renzi is rebuilding his country. In: http://www.tagesspiegel.de/ . July 20, 2015, accessed October 5, 2015 . 
38. ^ Italy and the constitutional reform. Italian Senate decides its own disempowerment. In: http://www.spiegel.de/ . October 13, 2015, accessed October 13, 2015 . 
39. ↑ Oliver Meiler: Maria Elena Boschi. Architect of the Italian constitutional reform. In: http://www.sueddeutsche.de/ . October 13, 2015, accessed October 13, 2015 . 
40. ↑ www.enav.it ( Memento of the original from October 7, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
41. ^ Tilmann Kleinjung: Italy wants to partially privatize the state railway. With the "red arrow" on the stock exchange. In: https://www.tagesschau.de/ . November 23, 2015, accessed November 25, 2015 . 
42. ^ Tobias Bayer: Italy. Matteo Renzi wants to reform state television. In: www.welt.de. April 2, 2015, accessed January 27, 2016 . 
43. ↑ La riforma della RAI è legge. In: passodopopasso.italia.it. December 22, 2015, archived from the original on January 27, 2016 ; Retrieved January 27, 2016 (Italian). 
44. ↑ Dominik Straub: Italy: Renzi enforces "gay marriage". In: derstandard.at . May 11, 2016, accessed January 6, 2017 . 
45. ↑ The Catholic Church in Italy and the Law on Gay Marriage. In: domradio.de. May 13, 2016, accessed January 6, 2017 . 
46. ^ Italy: Matteo Renzi has resigned. In: Spiegel Online . December 7, 2016, accessed January 6, 2017 . 
47. ^ Matteo Renzi e il nuovo partito: da Boschi a Bellanova: ecco chi segue l'ex segretario nella sua avventura. In: repubblica.it. September 16, 2019, accessed September 17, 2019 (Italian). 
48. ^ Renzi lascia il PD, infine. In: ilpost.it. September 17, 2019, accessed September 17, 2019 (Italian). 
49. ↑ Peter Mühlbauer: Italy: Social Democrats split. Telepolis , September 17, 2019, accessed the same day.
50. ^ Renzi: “Il nome del nuovo partito sarà Italia viva. In Parlamento siamo più di 40 ”. In: repubblica.it. September 17, 2019, accessed September 18, 2019 (Italian). 
51. ↑ faz.net January 13, 2021
52. ↑ see also spiegel.de: Renzi's fight against the »professor«
53. ↑ Book presentation Fuori! at Rizzoli , accessed February 16, 2014.
54. ^ Book presentation Stil Novo at Rizzoli , accessed on February 16, 2014.