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. He served as Mayor of Rome from 2001 to 2008.

Walter Veltroni was born in Rome. His father, Vittorio Veltroni, an eminent RAI manager in the 1950s, died only one year later. 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.

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.

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.

Corrado Guzzanti (born May 17, 1965) is an Italian actor, director, writer and satirist. He has been described as "the most interesting satirical author and actor today" and "among the comedians best loved by the Italian public."

Born in Rome, he is the son of journalist and Senator Paolo Guzzanti, great-nephew of former Minister of Health Elio Guzzanti, and brother of Sabina and Caterina, both also Italian television personalities and satirical actresses.

After beginning his career as writer for his sister Sabina, he debuted with roles for himself in Avanzi, hosted by Serena Dandini, with whom he collaborated in almost all his subsequent TV shows. These include Tunnel, Maddecheaò, Pippo Chennedy Show and L'ottavo nano.

He is famous for his corrosive imitations of Italian politicians and personalities: an incomplete list include Emilio Fede, Antonello Venditti, Francesco Rutelli, Romano Prodi, Fausto Bertinotti, Gianfranco Funari, Gianni Baget Bozzo, Giulio Tremonti and many others. He has also notoriously sent up Berlusconi's lauding of "freedom," which he and other critics of the Prime Minister view cynically, in a sketch in which he urinated on a couch.

Nicola "Nichi" Vendola (born 26 August 1958) is an Italian left-wing politician and currently the President of Apulia.

Born in Terlizzi, province of Bari (Puglia), Vendola had been a member of the Italian Communist Youth Federation since the age of 14; he studied literature in university, presenting a dissertation about the controversial poet and film director Pier Paolo Pasolini. Vendola then went on to become a journalist for l'Unità, and a leading member of the Italian gay organisation Arcigay.

A member of the National Secretariat of the Italian Communist Party, he fiercely opposed the dissolution of the party proposed by Achille Occhetto in 1991, which lead to the formation of the Democratic Party of the Left. Vendola instead joined the Communist Refoundation Party.

In 1992 Vendola was elected to the Chamber of Deputies, to a seat which he held until 2005. As a member of the Antimafia Commission, he came to prominence as a strong opponent of the Mafia and organised crime presence in the economy and society.