Walter Veltroni
62nd Mayor of Rome
In office 1 June 2001 – 13 February 2008
Preceded by	Francesco Rutelli
Succeeded by	Gianni Alemanno
Minister of Culture and Deputy Prime Minister of Italy
In office 17 May 1996 – 21 October 1998
Prime Minister	Romano Prodi
Preceded by	Antonio Paolucci
Succeeded by	Giovanna Melandri
Chairman of the Democratic Party of Italy
In office 14 October 2007 – 21 February 2009
Succeeded by	Dario Franceschini
Member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies
Incumbent
Assumed office 22 April 2008
Constituency	Lazio I
In office 27 June 1987 – 30 May 2001
Constituency	Roma (1987–1992) Perugia (1992–1994) 04 - Gubbio (Umbria) (1994–1996) 01 - Roma (1996–2001) Lazio II (2001)
Personal details
Born	(1955-07-03) 3 July 1955 (age 56) Rome, Italy
Political party	Italian Communist Party (1976-1991) Democratic Party of the Left (1991-1998) Democrats of the Left (1998-2007) Democratic Party (2007-present)
Spouse(s)	Flavia Prisco
Children	Martina, Vittoria
Profession	Politician Journalist Writer
Religion	Agnostic[1]

Walter Veltroni, Knight Grand Cross, (born 3 July 1955) is an Italian writer, journalist and politician, who served as the first leader of the Democratic Party within the centre-left opposition, until his resignation on 17 February 2009.^[2] He served as Mayor of Rome from 2001 to 2008.

Biography[link]

Walter Veltroni was born in Rome. His father, Vittorio Veltroni, an eminent RAI manager in the 1950s, died only one year later.^[3] His mother, Ivanka Kotnik, was the daughter of Ciril Kotnik, a Yugoslav diplomat at the Holy See who helped numerous Jews and antifascists to escape Nazi persecution after 1943.^[4]

Political life[link]

Veltroni joined the Federazione Giovanile Comunista Italiana (Italian Youth Communist Federation) at the age of 15, and was elected Rome city councilor in 1976 as member of the Italian Communist Party, serving until 1981. He was then elected to the Italian Chamber of Deputies in 1987. As a member of the Italian Communist Party's national secretariat in 1988, he played a leading role in the transformation into a social democratic party.

Veltroni, a professional journalist, was editor-in-chief of L'Unità, the newspaper of the Democratic Party of the Left from 1992 to 1996. He then successfully ran as vice-premier candidate, together with Romano Prodi, for the 1996 national election in Italy. In 1996 he joined the Bilderberg Group meeting, and was from 1996 to 1998 Minister for Cultural Assets and Activities. In 1998 he resigned, subsequent to his election as National Secretary of the Democrats of the Left (DS). Despite his background as a journalist, he has been involved in controversial episodes related to freedom of expression. For example in 2001, after the late night show Satyricon aired an interview that discussed indictments on links between the right-wing leader and the mafia, Marco Travaglio reported that Veltroni dispatched a messenger menacing the closure of the show.^[5]

As Mayor of Rome[link]

In 2001 Veltroni resigned as leader of the party after being elected Mayor of Rome. In May 2006 Veltroni was confirmed Mayor of Rome, easily defeating former Minister of Agriculture Gianni Alemanno, of National Alliance, obtaining an unprecedented 61.4% of the valid votes against the 37.1% achieved by his main opponent. The percentage of votes that supported Veltroni's second term in office was a record in local elections in Rome. Shortly before this confirmation, Veltroni had declared that he was going to leave politics at the end of his second term as Mayor.

In 2005, as mayor of Rome, he met in Washington, during a visit to the United States, then Illinois Senator, Barack Obama,^[6] being one of his earliest supporters overseas.^[7] He also wrote the preface to the Italian edition of The Audacity of Hope in 2007^[8] and has been referred to as "Obama's European counterpart".^[9]

Veltroni during the electoral campaign.

Veltroni was then widely considered one of the most popular centre left politicians in Italy, and often singled out for the leadership of the Democratic Party, despite his statements that he would not accept such position after his tenure as Mayor would end. In June 2007, DS leader Piero Fassino publicly asked Veltroni to run for the party leadership, offering support from all of his party. Several other Democratic Party leading members publicly stated their support for a possible candidacy of Veltroni. Furthermore, the strongest of his possible contenders, Pier Luigi Bersani, which polls showed as having a 50% support in center-north regions,^[10] withdrew to avoid a 'confusing candidacy'.^[11] Veltroni officially presented his candidacy for the leadership of the Democratic Party at a rally in Turin on 27 June 2007. At this occasion he introduced the four key issues his programme would address: environment, generational pact, education, and public security.^[12]

As leader of the Democratic Party[link]

Veltroni was elected as the first leader of the newly-founded Democratic Party on 14 October 2007, winning an open primary with around 2.6 millions of votes, or 75.8%.^[13]

In 2007, Veltroni had some remarks against the Romanian immigrants, claiming that Italy has become "unlivable" since Romania joined the European Union,^[14] while before its entry, Rome was "the safest city in the world", bringing accusations of xenophobia from the Romanian press.^[15]

Following the defeat of Prodi's government in a January 2008 Senate vote,^[16] Veltroni led the Democratic Party into the April 2008 general election. Veltroni resigned as Mayor of Rome on 13 February 2008 to concentrate on the campaign.^[17]

He has been criticised for his over-frequentation of Rome socialites and advised to focus on more practical problems.^[18]

On 17 February 2009, following clashes within the party and only a day after a heavy defeat of the Democratic Party in a local regional election in Sardinia,^[19] Veltroni announced his immediate resignation from his leadership post.^[2] The Constituent Assembly of the party subsequently convened on 21 February 2009 and elected Veltroni's former deputy Dario Franceschini as the new secretary.^[20]

Awards[link]

In 2003 he received a honoris causa degree in Public Services by the John Cabot University of Rome. In 2006 Veltroni received the title of Cavaliere di Gran Croce (Knight of the Grand Cross) from President of the Italian Republic Carlo Azeglio Ciampi. He won the America Award of the Italy-USA Foundation in 2009.

Works[link]

Veltroni has written a number of books on various topics, such as music, social issues, fiction, biographies and politics.

• 1977 - Il PCI e la questione giovanile (The PCI and the Youth Issue)
• 1978 - A dieci anni dal ’68. Intervista con Achille Occhetto (Ten Years since '68: Interview with Achille Occhetto)
• 1981 - Il sogno degli anni sessanta (The dream of the Sixties)
• 1982 - Il calcio è una scienza da amare (Football is a science to be loved)
• 1990 - Io e Berlusconi (e la Rai) (Berlusconi and me (and RAI))
• 1992 - I programmi che hanno cambiato l’Italia (Programs that changed Italy)
• 1992 - Il sogno spezzato. Le idee di Robert Kennedy (The broken dream. The ideas of Robert Kennedy)
• 1992 - La sfida interrotta. Le idee di Enrico Berlinguer (The interrupted challenge. The ideas of Enrico Berlinguer)
• 1994 - Certi piccoli amori (Certain small Loves)
• 1995 - La bella politica (interview book) (Politics, the beautiful)
• 1997 - Certi piccoli amori 2 (Certain Small Loves II)
• 1997 - Governare da sinistra (To Govern from the Left)
• 2000 - I care
• 2000 - Forse Dio è malato. Diario di un viaggio africano (Perhaps God is sick: Diary of an African journey)
• 2003 - Il disco del mondo. Vita breve di Luca Flores, musicista (The disk of the world. Short life of Luca Flores, musician)
• 2004 - Senza Patricio (Without Patricio)
• 2006 - La scoperta dell'alba (Discovery of the dawn)
• 2007 - Preface to Barack Obama, L'audacia della speranza (The Audacity of Hope)
• 2009 - Noi ("We")

References[link]

External links[link]

• The Independent, article critics about Veltroni La dolce vita revisited: Rome's new emperor
• (Italian) Repubblica.it: A brief portrait of Veltroni
• BBC News profile
• CityMayors profile
• World Mayors: Walter Veltroni
• Article about Walter Veltroni from Time magazine

Walter Veltroni v t e Prodi I Cabinet (1996 – 1998) Veltroni | Dini | Napolitano | Ciampi | Visco | Andreatta | Flick | Bersani | Pinto | Berlinguer | Bindi | Treu | Di Pietro | Costa | Burlando | Ronchi | Maccanico | Fantozzi | Bassanini | Turco | Finocchiaro | Bogi  v t e Mayors of Rome Giuseppe Lunati Filippo Doria Pamphili Giovanni Angelini Francesco Pallavicini Francesco Grispigni Pietro Venturi Luigi Pianciani Pietro Venturi Emanuele Ruspoli Augusto Armellini Luigi Pianciani Leopoldo Torlonia Alessandro Guccioli Augusto Armellini Camillo Finocchiaro Aprile Onorato Caetani Emanuele Ruspoli Enrico Gallupi Prospero Colonna Carlo Palomba Giovanni Cruciani Alibrandi Cesare Salvarezza Ernesto Nathan Fausto Aphel Prospero Colonna Adolfo Appolloni Luigi Riva Giovanni Valli Filippo Cremonesi Ludovico Spada Potenziani Francesco Boncompagni Ludovisi Giuseppe Bottai Piero Colonna Giancarlo Borghese Riccardo Motta Giovanni Orgera Roberto Bencivenga Andrea Doria Panphili Mario De Cesare Salvatore Robecchini Umberto Tupini Urbano Cioccetti Francesco Diana Glauco Della Porta Americo Petrucci Rinaldo Santini Clelio Darida Giovanni Starita Giulio Carlo Argan Luigi Petroselli Ugo Vetere Nicola Signorello Pietro Giubilo Angelo Barbato Franco Carraro Alessandro Voci Francesco Rutelli Walter Veltroni Gianni Alemanno v t e Secretary of the Democratic Party of the Left Achille Occhetto · Massimo D'Alema · Walter Veltroni · Piero Fassino v t e Leaders of the Democratic Party Secretary Walter Veltroni (2007–2009) • Dario Franceschini (2009) • Pier Luigi Bersani (since 2009) Deputy Secretary Dario Franceschini (2007–2009) • Enrico Letta (since 2009) President Romano Prodi (2007–2008) • Rosy Bindi (since 2009) Vice Presidents Marina Sereni (since 2009) • Ivan Scalfarotto (since 2009) Leader in the Chamber of Deputies Antonello Soro (since 2007) • Dario Franceschini (since 2009) Leader in the Senate Anna Finocchiaro (since 2007)

Ilaria Alpi (May 24, 1961 – March 20, 1994) was an Italian journalist killed in Mogadishu, Somalia together with her camera operator Miran Hrovatin. In 2009 Francesco Fonti, a former 'Ndrangheta member, claimed that Ilaria Alpi and her cameraman were murdered because they had seen toxic waste shipped by the 'Ndrangheta arrive in Bosaso, Somalia.^[1]

At the time of her murder, she was following a case of weapon and illegal toxic waste traffic in which she believed also the Italian Army and other institutions were involved. Alpi was born in Rome and worked for Italian public television broadcaster RAI.

In the 2002 movie Ilaria Alpi - Il più crudele dei giorni, directed by Ferdinando Vincentini Ornagni, she is portrayed by Giovanna Mezzogiorno.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Death in Somalia by Michael Maren.

• Ilaria Alpi at the Internet Movie Database

Romano Prodi
52nd Prime Minister of Italy
In office 17 May 2006 – 8 May 2008
President	Giorgio Napolitano
Deputy	Massimo D'Alema Francesco Rutelli
Preceded by	Silvio Berlusconi
Succeeded by	Silvio Berlusconi
In office 17 May 1996 – 21 October 1998
President	Oscar Luigi Scalfaro
Deputy	Walter Veltroni
Preceded by	Lamberto Dini
Succeeded by	Massimo D'Alema
Minister of Justice Acting
In office 17 January 2008 – 6 February 2008
Preceded by	Clemente Mastella
Succeeded by	Luigi Scotti
President of the European Commission
In office 16 September 1999 – 30 October 2004
Vice President	Loyola de Palacio
Preceded by	Manuel Marín (Acting)
Succeeded by	José Manuel Barroso
President of the Institute for Industrial Reconstruction
In office 1993–1994
Preceded by	Franco Nobili
Succeeded by	Michele Tedeschi
In office 1982–1989
Preceded by	Pietro Sette
Succeeded by	Franco Nobili
Minister of Industry, Commerce and Craftsmanship
In office 25 November 1978 – 20 March 1979
Prime Minister	Giulio Andreotti
Preceded by	Carlo Donat-Cattin
Succeeded by	Franco Nicolazzi
Personal details
Born	(1939-08-09) 9 August 1939 (age 72) Scandiano, Italy
Political party	Christian Democracy (Before 1996) The Olive Tree (1996–2005) The Union (2005–2007) Democratic Party (2007–present)
Spouse(s)	Flavia Franzoni
Children	Giorgio Antonio
Alma mater	Catholic University of the Sacred Heart London School of Economics

Romano Prodi (Italian pronunciation: [roˈmaːno ˈprɔːdi] ( listen); born 9 August 1939) is an Italian politician and statesman. He served as the Prime Minister of Italy, from 17 May 1996 to 21 October 1998 and from 17 May 2006 to 8 May 2008. He was also the tenth President of the European Commission from 1999 to 2004.

Prodi ran in 1996 as lead candidate of The Olive Tree coalition, winning the general election and serving as Prime Minister of Italy until 1998. Following the victory of his coalition The Union over the House of Freedoms led by Silvio Berlusconi in the April 2006 Italian elections Prodi was in power again. On 24 January 2008, he lost a vote of confidence in the Senate house, and consequently tendered his resignation as Prime Minister to Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, but continued in office for almost four months for routine business, until early elections were held and a new government was formed.

On 14 October 2007, Prodi became the first President of the Democratic Party upon foundation of the party.

On 12 September 2008, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon selected Prodi as president of the African Union-UN peacekeeping panel.^[1]

Prodi is also a member of the Club de Madrid, an international organization of former democratic statesmen, which works to strengthen democratic governance and leadership.^[2]

Personal[link]

Prodi was born in Scandiano, in the province of Reggio Emilia (Emilia-Romagna). He is the eighth of nine children of Mario Prodi, an engineer originally from a peasant family, and Enrica, a primary school teacher. He has two sisters and six brothers, five of them being like him university professors (one of whom, Vittorio Prodi, is also a Member of the European Parliament; see also Giorgio Prodi, an oncologist and biosemiotician).

Prodi married Flavia Franzoni in 1969. He was married by then-priest Camillo Ruini, now a well-known cardinal.^[3][4] They have two sons, Giorgio and Antonio. He and his family still live in Bologna.

Academic career[link]

After completing his secondary education at the Liceo Ludovico Ariosto in Reggio Emilia, Prodi graduated in law at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Milan in 1961, with a thesis on the role of Protectionism in the development of Italian industry. He then carried out postgraduate studies at the London School of Economics.^[5]

In 1963, he became a teaching assistant for Beniamino Andreatta in the Department of Economics and the Faculty of Political Science at the University of Bologna, subsequently serving as associate professor (1966) and finally (1971–1999) as Professor of Industrial Organisation and Industrial Policy. Prodi has also been a visiting professor at Harvard University and a researcher at the Stanford Research Institute. His research covers mainly competition regulations and the development of small and medium businesses. He is also interested in relations between states and markets, and the dynamics of the different capitalistic models.

Prodi has received almost 20 honorary degrees from institutions in Italy, and from the rest of Europe, North America, Asia, and Africa.^[6]

Politics[link]

Early political career[link]

Prodi's political career began as a left-of-centre reformist Christian Democrat and a disciple of Beniamino Andreatta, another economist turned politician. During the mid-1970s he was appointed Minister of Industry. During Giulio Andreotti's government in 1978, he served as a Technical Minister; through the 1980s and early 1990s he continuously served various government committees.

On 2 April 1978, Prodi and other teachers at the University of Bologna passed on a tip-off that revealed the whereabouts of the safe house where the kidnapped Aldo Moro, the former Prime Minister, was being held captive by the Red Brigades. Prodi claimed he had been given this tip-off by the founders of the Christian Democracy party, contacted from beyond the grave via a séance and a Ouija board. Whilst during this supposed séance Prodi thought the word Gradoli referred to a town on the outskirts of Rome, it probably referred to the Roman address of a Red Brigades safe house, located at no. 96, Via Gradoli. Later, other Italian members of the European Commission claimed Prodi had invented this story to conceal the real source of the tip-off, which they believed to have originated somewhere among the far-left Italian political groups.^[7]

This issue came back again in 2005, when Prodi was accused of being "a KGB man" by Mario Scaramella.^[8] The same accusation was raised in the 1990s by the Mitrokhin Commission.

From 1982–1989 and 1993–1994 Prodi, an expert economist and negotiator, was CEO of the powerful state-owned industrial holding company IRI. Though in this position he twice came under investigation – firstly for an alleged conflict of interest in relation to contracts awarded to his own economic research company, and secondly concerning the sale of the loss-making state-owned food conglomerate SME to the multinational Unilever, for which he had, for a time, been a paid consultant – however he was fully acquitted on both counts.

Olive Tree and first cabinet (1996–1998)[link]

In 1995, Prodi was one of the founders of the centre-left coalition The Olive Tree, and as its main leader he defeated the Silvio Berlusconi-led centre-right Pole of Freedoms coalition in the 1996 Italian general election. This led to Prodi's nomination as President of the Council of Ministers, as the position of Prime Minister is usually called in Italy. Prodi's programme consisted in continuing the past governments' work of restoration of the country's economic health, in order to pursue the then seemingly unreachable goal of leading the country within the strict European Monetary System parameters and make the country join the Euro currency. He succeeded in this in little more than six months. His government fell in 1998 when the Communist Refoundation Party withdrew its support. This led to the formation of a new government led by Massimo D'Alema as Prime Minister. There are those who claim that D'Alema deliberately engineered the collapse of the Prodi government to become Prime Minister himself.^{[citation needed]} As the result of a vote of no confidence in Prodi's government, D'Alema's nomination was passed by a single vote. This was the first and so far, the only occasion in the history of the Italian republic on which a vote of no confidence had ever been called; the Republic's many previous governments had been brought down by a majority "no" vote on some crucially important piece of legislation (such as the budget).

President of the European Commission (1999–2004)[link]

Romano Prodi (right) with Göran Persson and George W. Bush at Gunnebo Slott near Gothenburg, Sweden, 14 June 2001.

In September 1999 Prodi, a prominent pro-European, became President of the European Commission, thanks to the support of both the conservative European People's Party and social-democratic Party of European Socialists in the European Parliament. It was during Prodi's presidency, in 2002, that eleven EU member states abandoned their national currencies and adopted the Euro as their single currency. This commission (the 10th) saw in increase in power and influence following Amsterdam Treaty. Some in the media described President Prodi as being the first "Prime Minister of the European Union".^[9][10] and in 2004, still during Prodi's presidency, the EU was enlarged to admit several more member nations, most formerly part of the Soviet bloc. As well as the enlargement and Amsterdam Treaty, the Prodi Commission also saw the signing and enforcement of the Treaty of Nice as well as the conclusion and signing of the European Constitution: in which he introduced the "Convention method" of negotiation. Prodi's mandate expired on 18 November 2004, whereupon he returned to domestic politics.

Prodi's return to Italian politics and his second government (2006–2008)[link]

Shortly before the end of his term as President of the European Commission, Prodi returned to national Italian politics at the helm of the enlarged centre-left coalition, The Union.

Having no party of his own, in order to officially state his candidacy for the 2006 general election, Prodi came up with the idea of an apposite primary election, the first of such kind to be ever introduced in Europe and seen by its creator (Prodi himself) as a democratic move to bring the public and its opinion closer to the Italian politics, held on 16 October 2005, which he won with over 70% of votes. Over four million people for the occasion went to cast a vote in the primary election. He thus led his coalition to the electoral campaign preceding the election, eventually won by a very narrow margin of 25,000 votes, and a final majority of two seats in the Senate, on 10 April. Prodi's appointment was somewhat delayed, as the outgoing President of the Republic, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, ended his mandate in May, not having enough time for the usual procedure (consultations made by the President, appointment of a Prime Minister, motion of confidence and oath of office). After the acrimonious election of Giorgio Napolitano to replace Ciampi, Prodi could proceed with his transition to government. On 16 May he was invited by Napolitano to form a government. The following day, 17 May 2006, Prodi and his second cabinet were sworn into office.

Romano Prodi (second from the right) at the Helligendamm G8 Summit, 6–8 June 2007.

Prodi's new cabinet drew in politicians from across his centre-left winning coalition, in addition to Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, an unelected former official of the European Central Bank with no partisan membership. Romano Prodi obtained the support for his cabinet on 19 May at the Senate and on 23 May at the Chamber of Deputies. Also on 18 May, Prodi laid out some sense of his new foreign policy when he pledged to withdraw Italian troops from Iraq and called the Iraq war a "grave mistake that has not solved but increased the problem of security".^[11]

The coalition led by Romano Prodi, thanks to the electoral law which gave the winner a sixty seat majority, can count on a good majority in the Chamber of Deputies but only on a very narrow majority in the Senate. The composition of the coalition was heterogeneous, combining parties of communist ideology, the Party of Italian Communists and Communist Refoundation Party, within the same government as parties of Catholic inspiration, Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy and UDEUR Populars. The latter was led by Clemente Mastella, former chairman of Christian Democracy. Therefore, according to critics,^{[by whom?]} it was difficult to have a single policy in different key areas, such as economics and foreign politics (for instance, Italian military presence in Afghanistan). In his earlier months as PM, Prodi had a key role in the creation of a multinational peacekeeping force in Lebanon following the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict.

Prodi's government faced a crisis over policies in early 2007, after just nine months of government. Three ministers in Prodi's Cabinet boycotted a vote in January to continue funding for Italian troop deployments in Afghanistan. Lawmakers approved the expansion of the US military base Caserma Ederle at the end of January, but the victory was so narrow that Deputy Prime Minister Francesco Rutelli criticised members of the coalition who had not supported the government. At around the same time, Justice Minister Clemente Mastella, of the coalition member UDEUR Populars, said he would rather see the government fall than support its unwed couples legislation.^[12]

Tens of thousands of people marched in Vicenza against the expansion of Caserma Ederle, which saw the participation of some leading far-left members of the government.^[13] Harsh debates followed in the Italian Senate on 20 February 2007. Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Massimo D'Alema declared during an official visit in Ibiza, Spain that, without a majority on foreign policy affairs, the government would resign. The following day, D'Alema gave a speech at the Senate representing the government, clarifying his foreign policy and asking the Senate to vote for or against it. In spite of the fear of many senators that Prodi's defeat would return Silvio Berlusconi to power, the Senate did not approve a motion backing Prodi's government foreign policy, two votes shy of the required majority of 160.^[14]

After a Government meeting on 21 February, Romano Prodi tendered his resignation to the President Giorgio Napolitano, who cut short an official visit to Bologna in order to receive the Prime Minister. Prodi's spokesman indicated that he would only agree to form a new Government "if, and only if, he is guaranteed the full support of all the parties in the majority from now on."^[15] On 22 February, centre-left coalition party leaders backed a non-negotiable list of twelve political conditions given by Prodi as conditions of his remaining in office. President Napolitano held talks with political leaders on 23 February to decide whether to confirm Prodi's Government, ask Prodi to form a new government or call fresh elections.^[16]

Following these talks, on 24 February, President Napolitano asked Prodi to remain in office but to submit to a vote of confidence in both houses.^[16][17] "I will seek a vote of confidence as soon as possible, with renewed impetus and a united and determined coalition," Prodi said after meeting with President Giorgio Napolitano.^[18] On 28 February, the Senate voted to grant confidence to Prodi's Government. Though facing strong opposition from the centre-right coalition, the vote resulted in a 162–157 victory. Prodi then faced a vote of confidence in the lower house on 2 March, which he won as expected with a large majority of 342–198.^[19]

On 14 October 2007, Prodi oversaw the merger of two main parties of the Italian centre-left, Democrats of the Left and Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy, creating the Democratic Party. Prodi himself led the merger of the two parties, which had been planned over a twelve-year period, and became the first President of the party. He announced his resignation from that post on 16 April 2008, two days after the Democratic Party's defeat in the general election.

2008 crisis and resignation[link]

In early January 2008, Justice Minister and UDEUR Populars leader Clemente Mastella resigned after his wife Sandra Lonardo was put under house arrest for corruption charges. He initially announced external support for the government, only to withdraw it a few days later citing lack of solidarity from the majority parties, and declaring his party would vote against the government bills since then. With three Senators, UDEUR was instrumental to ensure a narrow centre-left majority in the Italian Senate.^[20] On 17 January 2008, Prodi became the Minister of Justice ad interim.

This caused Prodi to ask for a confidence vote in both Chambers: he won a clear majority in the Chamber of Deputies on 23 January,^[21] but was defeated 156 to 161 (with 1 abstention)^[22] in the Senate the next day. He consequently tendered his resignation as Prime Minister to President Giorgio Napolitano, who accepted it and appointed the President of the Senate, Franco Marini, with the task of evaulating the possibility to form an interim government to implement electoral reforms prior to holding elections. Marini, after consultation with all major political forces, acknowledged the impossibility of doing so on 5 February, forcing Napolitano to announce the end of the legislature.^[23] Prodi said that he would not seek to lead a new government.^[24] In the election that followed in April 2008, Berlusconi's centre-right The People of Freedom and allies defeated the Democratic Party.

After politics[link]

On 19 March 2008, during the political campaign for the snap general election, Romano Prodi stated "I called it a day with Italian politics and maybe with politics in general."^[25]

On 12 September 2008, Prodi was named by the UN as head of a joint AU-UN panel aimed at enhancing peacekeeping operations in Africa.^[26]

On 6 February 2009, he was appointed Professor-at-Large at the Watson Institute for International Studies of Brown University.^[27] Since 2010 Romano Prodi is the chair for Sino-European dialogue at the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS - Shanghai&Beijing), China's leading business school.

Honours and awards[link]

•  Albania: Received a copy of the key of the city of Tirana on the occasion of his state visit to Albania.^[28]
• Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic – 2 June 1993
• Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Star of Romania
• Order of the Three Stars, 1st Class – 2007

Academic awards[link]

• Laurea in Giurisprudenza (110 e lode) Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano (1961)
• Madras University (India, 1998)
• Sofia University (Bulgaria, 1998)
• Universitat Politecnica de Barcelona (Spain, 1998)
• Brown University (United States, 1999)
• University of Michigan (United States, 1999)
• Economical studies Bucharest (Romania, 2000)
• Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium, 2000)
• Malta University (2000)
• Modena e Reggio Emilia University (Italy, 2000)
• Ottawa University (Canada, 2000)
• St. Gallen University (Switzerland, 2000)
• Kyung Hee University, (South Korea, 2000)
• Pisa University (Italy, 2001)
• University of Tirana (Albania, 2001)
• Carleton University (Ottawa, Canada, 2001)
• Instituto de Empresa di Madrid (Spain, 2002)
• Oxford University, (United Kingdom, 2002)
• Pavia University, (Italy, 2002)
• Skopje University, (2003)
• Tunis University, (Tunisia, 2003)
• Calabria University (Italy, 2003)
• Torino University (Italy, 2004)
• Lublin University (Poland, 2004)
• Tongji University (Shanghai, 2006)
• Milan Catholic University (Italy, 2007)
• Addis Abeba University (2007)
• Kolkata University (2007)
• Friburg University (2008)
• MIRBIS University Moscow (2009)
• Chinese Academy of Governance, (P.R. China, 2010)
• Nova Gorica University (2010)
• Nankai (P.R. China, 2010)

Notes[link]

See also[link]

• Enlargement of the European Union
• Euro launch
• European constitution
• Italian general election, 2006
• Lisbon Agenda
• Prodi Commission

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Romano Prodi

• Personal website
• Democratic Party website
• Official Site of the President of the European Commission. Includes a curriculum vitae, from which some of the information in this article was drawn.

Romano Prodi v t e Prime Ministers of Italy Kingdom of Italy Cavour · Ricasoli · Rattazzi · Farini · Minghetti · La Marmora · Ricasoli · Rattazzi · Menabrea · Lanza · Minghetti · Depretis · Cairoli · Depretis · Cairoli · Depretis · Crispi · Starabba · Giolitti · Crispi · Starabba · Pelloux · Saracco · Zanardelli · Giolitti · Tittoni · Fortis · Sonnino · Giolitti · Sonnino · Luzzatti · Giolitti · Salandra · Boselli · Orlando · Nitti · Giolitti · Bonomi · Facta · Mussolini · Badoglio · Bonomi · Parri · De Gasperi Italian Republic De Gasperi · Pella · Fanfani · Scelba · Segni · Zoli · Fanfani · Segni · Tambroni · Fanfani · Leone · Moro · Leone · Rumor · Colombo · Andreotti · Rumor · Moro · Andreotti · Cossiga · Forlani · Spadolini · Fanfani · Craxi · Fanfani · Goria · De Mita · Andreotti · Amato · Ciampi · Berlusconi · Dini · Prodi · D'Alema · Amato · Berlusconi · Prodi · Berlusconi · Monti v t e Andreotti IV Cabinet (1978–1979) De Mita Forlani Cossiga/Andreotti (interim)/Rognoni Bonifacio Morlino Malfatti Pandolfi Ruffini Pedini Stammati Marcora Colombo Gullotti Donat-Cattin/Prodi Anselmi Ossola Colombo (interim) Bisaglia Scotti Antoniozzi Pastorino v t e Prodi I Cabinet (1996 – 1998) Veltroni | Dini | Napolitano | Ciampi | Visco | Andreatta | Flick | Bersani | Pinto | Berlinguer | Bindi | Treu | Di Pietro | Costa | Burlando | Ronchi | Maccanico | Fantozzi | Bassanini | Turco | Finocchiaro | Bogi  v t e Prodi II Cabinet (2006 - 2008) D'Alema | Rutelli | Amato | Padoa-Schioppa | Parisi | Mastella | Bersani | De Castro | Fioroni | Mussi | Turco | Damiano | Ferrero | Di Pietro | Bianchi | Pecoraro Scanio | Gentiloni | Bonino | Chiti | Nicolais | Lanzillotta | Santagata | Pollastrini | Melandri | Bindi  v t e Presidents of the European Council President-in-Office (1975–2009) Liam Cosgrave · Aldo Moro · Gaston Thorn · Joop den Uyl · James Callaghan · Leo Tindemans · Anker Jørgensen · Helmut Schmidt · Valéry Giscard d'Estaing · Jack Lynch · Francesco Cossiga · Charles Haughey · Pierre Werner · Dries van Agt · Margaret Thatcher · Wilfried Martens · Anker Jørgensen · Poul Schlüter · Helmut Kohl · Andreas Papandreou · François Mitterrand · Garret FitzGerald · Bettino Craxi · Jacques Santer · Ruud Lubbers · Margaret Thatcher · Wilfried Martens · Poul Schlüter · Helmut Kohl · Andreas Papandreou · Felipe González · François Mitterrand · Charles Haughey · Giulio Andreotti · Jacques Santer · Ruud Lubbers · Poul Schlüter · Aníbal Cavaco Silva · John Major · Poul Nyrup Rasmussen · Jean-Luc Dehaene · Andreas Papandreou · Helmut Kohl · Jacques Chirac · Felipe González · Lamberto Dini · Romano Prodi · John Bruton · Wim Kok · Jean-Claude Juncker · Tony Blair · Viktor Klima · Gerhard Schröder · Paavo Lipponen · António Guterres · Jacques Chirac · Göran Persson · Guy Verhofstadt · José María Aznar López · Anders Fogh Rasmussen · Costas Simitis · Silvio Berlusconi · Bertie Ahern · Jan Peter Balkenende · Jean-Claude Juncker · Tony Blair · Wolfgang Schüssel · Matti Vanhanen · Angela Merkel · José Sócrates · Janez Janša · Nicolas Sarkozy · Mirek Topolánek · Jan Fischer · Fredrik Reinfeldt Permanent President (since 2009) Herman Van Rompuy v t e European Commission Presidents and their Commissions ECSC: Jean Monnet (1952) • René Mayer (1955) • Paul Finet (1958) • Piero Malvestiti (1959) • Rinaldo Del Bo (1963) • Albert Coppé (1963) EAEC: Louis Armand (1958) • Étienne Hirsch (1959) • Pierre Chatenet (1962) EEC: Walter Hallstein (1958)2 EC: Jean Rey (1967) • Franco Maria Malfatti (1970) • Sicco Mansholt (1972) • François-Xavier Ortoli (1973) • Roy Jenkins (1977) • Gaston Thorn (1981) • Jacques Delors (1985)2 EU: Jacques Delors (1993) • Jacques Santer (1995) • Manuel Marín (1999) • Romano Prodi (1999) • José Manuel Barroso (2004)2 Commission President  · President of the European Council  · Council Presidency  · President of Parliament v t e Leaders of the Democratic Party Secretary Walter Veltroni (2007–2009) • Dario Franceschini (2009) • Pier Luigi Bersani (since 2009) Deputy Secretary Dario Franceschini (2007–2009) • Enrico Letta (since 2009) President Romano Prodi (2007–2008) • Rosy Bindi (since 2009) Vice Presidents Marina Sereni (since 2009) • Ivan Scalfarotto (since 2009) Leader in the Chamber of Deputies Antonello Soro (since 2007) • Dario Franceschini (since 2009) Leader in the Senate Anna Finocchiaro (since 2007)