Lamberto Dini

Infobox Prime Minister
honorific-prefix = Senatore
name = Lamberto Dini


imagewidth = 200px
caption =
order = 74th
President of the Council of Ministers of Italy
president = Oscar Luigi Scalfaro
term_start = 17 January 1995
term_end = 17 May 1996
predecessor = Silvio Berlusconi
successor = Romano Prodi
order2 = Italian Minister of Justice
primeminister2 = "Himself"
predecessor2 = Filippo Mancuso
successor2 = Vincenzo Caianiello
term_start2 = October 19, 1995
term_end2 = February 16, 1996
order3 = Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs
term_start3 = May 17, 1996
term_end3 = June 6, 2001
predecessor3 = Susanna Agnelli
successor3 = Giuliano Amato
primeminister3 = Romano Prodi
Massimo D'Alema
Giuliano Amato
order4 = Member of the Italian Senate
constituency4 = Toscana
term_start4 = April 19, 2006
term_end4 =
birth_date = birth date and age|1931|3|1
nationality = Italian
birth_place = Florence, Italy
profession = Politician
Economist
spouse = Donatella Zigone
children =
residence = Rome, Italy
alma_mater = University of Florence
religion = Roman Catholic
party = People of Freedom

audio|It-Lamberto Dini.ogg|Lamberto Dini (born March 1, 1931) is an Italian politician and economist, former Prime Minister and Foreign Minister.

Early life and Berlusconi cabinet

After studying Economics in his native city of Florence, Dini took up a post at the International Monetary Fund in 1959, where he worked his way up until he served as Executive Director for Italy, Greece, Portugal and Malta between 1976 and 1979. Then, in October 1979, he moved to the Banca d'Italia, where he served as executive until May 1994. When the Governor of the Bank of Italy, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, with whom Dini had developed a rivalry, was called upon to serve as Premier, in April, 1993, Dini was widely tipped to succeed him, but was passed over (allegedly on Ciampi's instigation) in favour of Antonio Fazio.

Dini scored a comeback, though, when Silvio Berlusconi formed his first cabinet, in May,1994, in which Dini served as Treasury Minister. Due to a split between Berlusconi and his coalition partner Umberto Bossi, the Lega Nord leader, Berlusconi's government collapsed in December 1994, after a mere seven months in power. In January 1995, Dini was appointed Prime Minister by President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro. Though he was not noted as a left-winger, Dini, was given the confidence vote of the left-wing parties (apart from the Communist Refoundation) and by Lega Nord, whereas his erstwhile partners in the right-wing government chose to abstain whilst citing benevolence. In theory, his cabinet was a technocratic one.

Olive Tree

In April, 1996, a general election was called, in which Berlusconi's House of Freedoms coalition, minus the Lega Nord, was pitted against that of Romano Prodi, The Olive Tree. Relations between Dini and Berlusconi had seriously soured by then, and Dini chose to join The Olive Tree with his own centrist party, Italian Renewal ("Rinnovamento Italiano"). Dini was elected to the Italian Chamber of Deputies, and served for the entire term as Minister of Foreign Affairs in four successive centre-left governments, under Prodi, Massimo D'Alema in two separate, successive cabinets, and finally Giuliano Amato.

His party has dissolved into the Democracy is Freedom – Daisy, a larger party formed out of several centrist parties belonging to the centre-left coalition. The May 2001 the general election was won by Berlusconi and his allies (including, once again, Lega Nord), which led to Berlusconi forming his second government in June. Dini was elected to the Italian Senate, and, in this capacity, served as a delegate to the Convention in charge of drafting the European Constitution (February 2002-July 2003).

People of Freedom

Protagonist of the defeat of the government of Prime Minister Romano Prodi in a January 2008 Senate vote, in view of the 2008 Italian general election he joins People of Freedom, the new Italian liberal and conservative party led by Silvio Berlusconi, where will run the major centre-right political parties.

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