Massimo D'Alema (; born 20 April 1949) is an Italian politician and journalist who was the 53rd
prime minister of Italy
The prime minister of Italy, officially the president of the Council of Ministers (), is the head of government of the Italy, Italian Republic. The office of president of the Council of Ministers is established by articles 92–96 of the Co ...
from 1998 to 2000.
He was
Deputy Prime Minister of Italy and
Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs
The minister of foreign affairs is the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Italy), Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Italy. The office was one of the positions which Italy inherited from the Kingdom of Sardinia where it was the most ancient mi ...
from 2006 to 2008.
D'Alema also served for a time as national secretary of the
Democratic Party of the Left (PDS).
Earlier in his career, D'Alema was a member of the
Italian Communist Party
The Italian Communist Party (, PCI) was a communist and democratic socialist political party in Italy. It was established in Livorno as the Communist Party of Italy (, PCd'I) on 21 January 1921, when it seceded from the Italian Socialist Part ...
(PCI) and was the first former
Communist party member to become prime minister of a
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...
country and the only former PCI prime minister of Italy.
Due to his first name and for his dominant position in the
left-wing
Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social ...
coalitions during the
Second Republic, he is referred to as ''Leader Maximo'' ("Maximum Leader"). He is also the author of several books.
A member of the PCI since 1963, D'Alema was a member of the party's central committee and then of the leadership and party secretariat; from 1975 to 1980, he was also secretary of the
Italian Communist Youth Federation (FGCI).
He was supportive of
Achille Occhetto's turning point that dissolved the PCI and established the PDS, and he presided over the establishment of
The Olive Tree coalition that won the
1996 Italian general election
The 1996 Italian general election was held on 21 April 1996 to elect members of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Republic. Romano Prodi, leader of the centre-left The Olive Tree, won the election, narrowly defeating Silvio Berl ...
and the transformation of the PDS into the
Democrats of the Left
The Democrats of the Left (, DS) was a social-democratic political party in Italy. Positioned on the centre-left, the DS, successor of the Democratic Party of the Left (PDS) and the Italian Communist Party, was formed in 1998 upon the merger ...
(DS) in 1998, the same year he became prime minister.
A member of Italy's
Chamber of Deputies
The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures.
Description
Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourb ...
from 1987 to 2004 and then from 2006 to 2013, he was also a
member of the European Parliament
A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament.
When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...
from 2004 to 2006. He joined the
Democratic Party (PD) upon its foundation in 2007. He opposed
Matteo Renzi
Matteo Renzi (; born 11 January 1975) is an Italian politician who served as prime minister of Italy from 2014 to 2016. He has been a senator for Florence since 2018. Renzi has served as the leader of Italia Viva (IV) since 2019, having bee ...
's secretariat and was contrasted with the
Renziani wing within the party, which he left in 2017 to become a founder of
Article One.
Early life and education
D'Alema was born in
Rome
Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
on 20 April 1949, the son of , a
partisan in the
Italian resistance movement
The Italian Resistance ( ), or simply ''La'' , consisted of all the Italian resistance groups who fought the occupying forces of Nazi Germany and the fascist collaborationists of the Italian Social Republic during the Second World War in Italy ...
within the
Patriotic Action Groups and
communist
Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...
politician, and Fabiola Modesti. He joined the
Italian Communist Party
The Italian Communist Party (, PCI) was a communist and democratic socialist political party in Italy. It was established in Livorno as the Communist Party of Italy (, PCd'I) on 21 January 1921, when it seceded from the Italian Socialist Part ...
(PCI) at the age of 14 and began his political career in
Pisa
Pisa ( ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Tuscany, Central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for the Leaning Tow ...
, where he was studying
philosophy
Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...
.
He was praised as ''enfant prodige'' by the then PCI leader
Palmiro Togliatti and took part to the
protests of 1968
The protests of 1968 comprised a worldwide escalation of social conflicts, which were predominantly characterized by the rise of left-wing politics, Anti-war movement, anti-war sentiment, Civil and political rights, civil rights urgency, youth C ...
, alongside his friend
Fabio Mussi.
Career
Italian Communist Youth Federation
In 1975, D'Alema was elected national secretary of the
Italian Communist Youth Federation (FGCI). It was during this period that D'Alema and
Walter Veltroni
Walter Veltroni (; born 3 July 1955) is an Italian writer, film director, journalist and politician. He served as the first leader of the Democratic Party within the Italian centre-left opposition until his resignation on 17 February 2009. H ...
met each other, and with him a dualism would form, without any public attacks. Years later, Veltroni recounted: "Massimo came from the party to more severely lead a rebel FGCI, I was more attentive to the movements."
In 1983, he became regional secretary of the PCI's Apulian federation.
The then PCI leader
Enrico Berlinguer
Enrico Berlinguer (; 25 May 1922 – 11 June 1984) was an Italian politician and statesman. Considered the most popular leader of the Italian Communist Party (PCI), he led the PCI as the national secretary from 1972 until his death during a te ...
sent D'Alema in China to improve relations with the
Chinese Communists after the arrest of the
Gang of Four in 1976, and D'Alema followed Berlinguer in Moscow for the funeral of
Yuri Andropov
Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov ( – 9 February 1984) was a Soviet politician who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from late 1982 until his death in 1984. He previously served as the List of Chairmen of t ...
in 1984.
During the 1980s, the PCI's road to government did not succeed. To the press who reported a significant drop in membership, D'Alema replied that it was not only a problem of the PCI or of Italy but concerned all mass parties in the Western world, citing
Christian Democracy
Christian democracy is an ideology inspired by Christian social teaching to respond to the challenges of contemporary society and politics.
Christian democracy has drawn mainly from Catholic social teaching and neo-scholasticism, as well ...
(DC) and the
Italian Socialist Party
The Italian Socialist Party (, PSI) was a Social democracy, social democratic and Democratic socialism, democratic socialist political party in Italy, whose history stretched for longer than a century, making it one of the longest-living parti ...
(PSI), the then main parties of government. He said: "I would like to know how many members the DC and the PSI have ... who escape this discussion not because they too do not have problems of this type, but simply because they are not transparent. And yet we are."
According to D'Alema, the other parties registered through the distribution of card packages, while the PCI had a modern form of individual and voluntary registration. In the meantime, there was the
dissolution of the Soviet Union
The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Declaration No. 142-Н of ...
and the turning point of the Bolognina.
From 1988 to 1990, D'Alema was the director of ''
L'Unità'', formerly the official newspaper of the PCI, which subsequently became the newspaper of the DS. A journalist by profession, he also wrote for ''Città futura'' and ''
Rinascita''.
It is recounted that D'Alema hated other journalists and that this was reciprocal, due to his word of scorn and haughtiness, allegations that he always denied.
One notable case was a 1995 interview with
Lucia Annunziata, which was sensational for its lucidity regarding the relationship between the powers that be and Italian media information. He explained how the press had lost its historical references, namely a solid political system, which guaranteed clarity of alignment, and how what he described as the new anarchy that emerged bore the sign of the "unqualified destructuring of the political democracy".
He was asked "Do the 'powers that be' play the shambles of politics?", to which he replied: "There is no doubt. Information has been a formidable tool that has contributed to the disintegration and loss of authority of political power. No political power can survive information that spies on him through the keyhole as he goes to the toilet."
Despite his criticism of the mass media, D'Alema came to accept the change of times and accepted invitations to ''
Porta a Porta'' and was a host of
Gianni Morandi's show, where he sang "
C'era un ragazzo che come me amava i Beatles e i Rolling Stones". He and Morandi had met at the
association football
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...
charity match between politicians and journalists.
From the Italian Communist Party to the Democrats of the Left
D'Alema entered the PCI's national secretariat in 1986 and supported the transformation into the
Democratic Party of the Left (PDS), which was launched by
Achille Occhetto and made official by the
Rimini
Rimini ( , ; or ; ) is a city in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy.
Sprawling along the Adriatic Sea, Rimini is situated at a strategically-important north-south passage along the coast at the southern tip of the Po Valley. It is ...
party congress in February 1991. He was a notable member of the PCI, the bulk of which in 1991 became the PDS and in 1998 formed the
Democrats of the Left
The Democrats of the Left (, DS) was a social-democratic political party in Italy. Positioned on the centre-left, the DS, successor of the Democratic Party of the Left (PDS) and the Italian Communist Party, was formed in 1998 upon the merger ...
(DS). It was during this period in the late 1980s and early 1990s that D'Alema found his first political enemies, who gave vitriolic interviews, such as the reformist , who criticized D'Alema and Occhetto for their lack of vision upon reaching the highest party positions.
In the past, the selection went through hunger, debates in assembly, and the police of Scelba when communists were persecuted. In the post-war years, a qualified young communist flowed into the PCI for whom the communist militia coincided with a lifestyle choice. D'Alema embodied an anthropological turning point, where the
Leninist
Leninism (, ) is a political ideology developed by Russian Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin that proposes the establishment of the Dictatorship of the proletariat#Vladimir Lenin, dictatorship of the proletariat led by a revolutionary Vangu ...
concept of professional revolutionaries was rejected in favour of salaried party executives comparable to public administrators and union officials.
1994 saw the PCI tradition of the sole candidate for the party secretariat, the leader designated from above, broken. After Occhetto's resignation, D'Alema announced his candidacy to succeed him. When he learned that Veltroni would also do so, he entered
Claudio Petruccioli's studio and told him: "I will certainly be elected, but have you thought what would happen if Veltroni were elected? With my opposition, it wouldn't last two months."
As the PDS secretary, D'Alema attempted to normalize relations with
Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; 29 September 193612 June 2023) was an Italian Media proprietor, media tycoon and politician who served as the prime minister of Italy in three governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a mem ...
, who later broke it, for institutional reforms.
Following the loss of the PDS and Occhetto-led
Alliance of Progressives in the
1994 Italian general election, D'Alema supported the creation of
The Olive Tree coalition that opened up to centrist and moderate forces, whether secular or Catholic.
In the internal life of the party, mostly during its transition from PCI to PDS, he stressed that its roots in
Marxism
Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...
should be renovated, with the aim to create a modern Western European
social-democratic party. He was a member of Italy's
Chamber of Deputies
The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures.
Description
Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourb ...
since 1987 and president of the PDS parliamentary group from 1992 to 1994. In July 1994, he became its national secretary and surpassed Veltroni, his direct competitor, in the votes of the national council. Under his leadership, the PDS conducted a tough opposition against the
first Berlusconi government (May 1994 – January 1995), and then became part of the
majority government
A majority government is a government by one or more governing parties that hold an absolute majority of seats in a legislature. Such a government can consist of one party that holds a majority on its own, or be a coalition government of multi ...
that supported the subsequent
Dini government (January 1995 – May 1996), including the
Italian People's Party and the
Northern League, among others.
The same year of the DS foundation, succeeding
Romano Prodi
Romano Prodi (; born 9 August 1939) is an Italian politician who served as President of the European Commission from 1999 to 2004 and twice as Prime Minister of Italy, from 1996 to 1998, and again from 2006 to 2008. Prodi is considered the fo ...
, D'Alema became
Prime Minister of Italy
The prime minister of Italy, officially the president of the Council of Ministers (), is the head of government of the Italy, Italian Republic. The office of president of the Council of Ministers is established by articles 92–96 of the Co ...
as the leader of The Olive Tree coalition founded by Prodi and supported by D'Alema that, also thanks to the support of the
Communist Refoundation Party
The Communist Refoundation Party (, PRC) is a Communism, communist List of political parties in Italy, political party in Italy that emerged from a split of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in 1991. The party's secretary is Maurizio Acerbo, who r ...
(PRC), which was founded by those who were opposed to the dissolution of the PCI, had won the
1996 Italian general election
The 1996 Italian general election was held on 21 April 1996 to elect members of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Republic. Romano Prodi, leader of the centre-left The Olive Tree, won the election, narrowly defeating Silvio Berl ...
;
it was the first general election win for progressives.
The first prime minister born after Italy became a republic in 1946, he was the first former Communist party member to become prime minister of a
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...
country; he remains the only former PCI member to become prime minister.
Committed to institutional reforms during the
first Prodi government, he was first elected president of a bicameral commission for constitutional reforms in February 1997 and began the development of the PDS into a new unitary force that would aggregate further personalities and organizations from the socialist, secular, and left-wing Catholic area. In February 1998, the start of the formation process of the DS, which was led by D'Alema, was concluded with the merge of the PDS, the
Labour Federation, the
Movement of Unitarian Communists, the
Social Christians, and exponents of the republican left.
D'Alema became prime minister when the PRC retired its support of Prodi's government, and led to a new centre-left government, including the
Democratic Union for the Republic and the
Party of Italian Communists
The Party of Italian Communists (, PdCI) was a communist party in Italy established in October 1998 by splinters from the Communist Refoundation Party (PRC). The split was led by Armando Cossutta, founder and early leader of the PRC, who oppos ...
, the latter being a split from the PRC in disagreement over the fall of Prodi's government.
Centre-left coalition governments
Prime Minister of Italy
D'Alema became prime minister thanks to
Francesco Cossiga and part of the right-wing opposition, after the crisis of the first Prodi government.
A month after becoming prime minister, D'Alema left the secretariat of the DS to Veltroni and assumed the presidency of the party.
The
first D'Alema government continued on the path of financial recovery and privatization, as well as the reform of the welfare state. The differences within the majority were accentuated with the formation of the new grouping of
The Democrats, which were linked to Prodi and
Antonio Di Pietro and that often made the government's path bumpy, and also forced to deal with a difficult situation on the international level, as Italy took part in the
NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1999.

D'Alema supported Italy's commitment in the
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...
air intervention against the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The State Union of Serbia and Montenegro or simply Serbia and Montenegro, known until 2003 as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and commonly referred to as FR Yugoslavia (FRY) or simply Yugoslavia, was a country in Southeast Europe locate ...
in favour of
Kosovo
Kosovo, officially the Republic of Kosovo, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe with International recognition of Kosovo, partial diplomatic recognition. It is bordered by Albania to the southwest, Montenegro to the west, Serbia to the ...
(March–June 1999).
The intervention was also supported by
Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; 29 September 193612 June 2023) was an Italian Media proprietor, media tycoon and politician who served as the prime minister of Italy in three governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a mem ...
and the right-wing opposition, while some of those further to the left, such as the PRC, strongly contested it. The government suffered setbacks at the
1999 European Parliament election in Italy, which was held in June, and new tensions in the majority led in December 1999 to his government’s resignation and the establishment of the
second D'Alema government, in which greater weight was given to The Democrats.
Both as party leader and prime minister, D'Alema argued for a long time with
Sergio Cofferati, the then powerful and undisputed leader of the
CGIL trade union. About labour issues, he said: "Precisely if we want to push forward a labour policy, we must have the courage of a work of renewal. ... I felt Cofferati, even unlike on other occasions, more closed and deaf. We feel challenged by reality to a necessary critical reflection. Mobility, flexibility, are above all a fact of reality. And even something which corresponds to a different way, in the new generation, of looking at work and at one's relationship with work."
At the 1997 party congress, he unexpectedly attacked the CGIL. He said: "Mobility and flexibility are above all a fact of reality ... we must build new and more flexible networks of representation and protection. If we don't put ourselves on this ground, we will represent more and more only a segment of the world of work."
Additionally, he promoted a Florence conference on the
Third Way
The Third Way is a predominantly centrist political position that attempts to reconcile centre-right and centre-left politics by advocating a varying synthesis of Right-wing economics, right-wing economic and Left-wing politics, left-wing so ...
, in the presence of two personalities far from the tradition of the Italian left:
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...
and
Tony Blair
Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He was Leader ...
.
In the 1998 assembly of the General States of the political left in 1998, D'Alema launched the Cosa 2, a political construction site for a new federative party of the left that would unite the former PCI, socialists, and Christian reformers. Apart from the name change to the DS, its symbol (the rose of
European socialism instead of the PCI/PDS
hammer and sickle at the foot of the oak) were changed. At the 2001 party congress, D'Alema supported the candidacy for the secretariat of
Piero Fassino against
Giovanni Berlinguer at the head of a minority motion promoted and supported by Cofferati and the CGIL. In a twist of fate, D'Alema was the only centre-left party secretary, alongside
Matteo Renzi
Matteo Renzi (; born 11 January 1975) is an Italian politician who served as prime minister of Italy from 2014 to 2016. He has been a senator for Florence since 2018. Renzi has served as the leader of Italia Viva (IV) since 2019, having bee ...
, to be opposed by the CGIL and its leaders. Because of this, coupled with support from its opponents on the political right, D'Alema was subjected to criticism not only because of his character but of his policy.
They reminded of the farewell to the permanent job and the dominated relationship with Cofferati, sympathy for the Palestinians, that "Bye-bye Condi" directed on the telephone to the then United States secretary of state,
Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza "Condi" Rice ( ; born November 14, 1954) is an American diplomat and political scientist serving since 2020 as the 8th director of Stanford University's Hoover Institution. A member of the Republican Party, she previously served ...
, in order to be heard by journalists, the communist pride, and that Berlusconi's conflict of interest never approved in five years of government and that "Mediaset heritage to defend", which was pronounced during the normalization phase with Berlusconi.

In 1999, D'Alema managed to summon five other heads of state and government to Florence: Clinton, Blair,
Lionel Jospin
Lionel Robert Jospin (; born 12 July 1937) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 1997 to 2002.
Jospin was First Secretary of the French Socialist Party, First Secretary of the Socialist Party from 1995 to 1997 and th ...
,
Gerhard Schroeder, and
Fernando Cardoso, among other personalities, from
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, lawyer and diplomat. She was the 67th United States secretary of state in the administration of Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, a U.S. senator represent ...
to Prodi, who was the then president of the
European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...
. In those years, D'Alema followed the Third Way and invited entrepreneurs to grow, invest, and get rich. He urged them to report the obstacles encountered in their path so that the government could "get them out of the way".
At the 1999 congress of the
Federation of the Greens
The Federation of the Greens (, FdV), frequently referred to as Greens (''Verdi''), was a green political party in Italy. It was formed in 1990 by the merger of the Federation of Green Lists and the Rainbow Greens.
The FdV was part of the Eur ...
, D'Alema outlined what would later become the
Democratic Party (PD). He did not believe in that project because he was convinced that Italy is a structurally right-wing country, that in a
majoritarian system an ex-Communist party alone would never be able to govern, and that even if it succeeded in doing so, the Italian media information system would end up destroying it.
Following the defeat in the
2000 Italian regional elections, which were held in April, he left the offices of prime minister and president of the DS. In December 2000, he became president of the DS. At the second national congress of the party held in
Pesaro
Pesaro (; ) is a (municipality) in the Italy, Italian region of Marche, capital of the province of Pesaro and Urbino, on the Adriatic Sea. According to the 2011 census, its population was 95,011, making it the second most populous city in the ...
in November 2001, he was confirmed to the party presidency.
European Parliament and Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs
Since the
2004 European Parliament election in Italy, D'Alema was a
member of the European Parliament
A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament.
When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...
for
Southern Italy
Southern Italy (, , or , ; ; ), also known as () or (; ; ; ), is a macroregion of Italy consisting of its southern Regions of Italy, regions.
The term "" today mostly refers to the regions that are associated with the people, lands or cultu ...
with the DS, as part of the
Party of European Socialists (PES) group, and sat on the
European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...
's
Committee on Fisheries and the
European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs until April 2006, when he stood down following his election to the Chamber of Deputies in Italy.
Following Prodi's win in the
2006 Italian general election, D'Alema was initially tipped to become
president of Italy
The president of Italy, officially titled President of the Italian Republic (), is the head of state of Italy. In that role, the president represents national unity and guarantees that Politics of Italy, Italian politics comply with the Consti ...
once the Chamber of Deputies reconvened. D'Alema himself stepped back, endorsing the official candidate of
The Union,
Giorgio Napolitano, who was ultimately elected. Immediately following the April 2006 election, D'Alema was proposed as the future
president of the Chamber of Deputies. The PRC strongly pushed for its leader,
Fausto Bertinotti, to become the next president. After a couple of days of heated debate, D'Alema stepped back to prevent a fracture between the parties, an act that was applauded by his allies. As a result, Bertinotti was elected president. That same month, D'Alema was appointed as
Deputy Prime Minister of Italy and
Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs
The minister of foreign affairs is the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Italy), Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Italy. The office was one of the positions which Italy inherited from the Kingdom of Sardinia where it was the most ancient mi ...
in the
second Prodi government.
As the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, D'Alema pushed for a foreign policy of peace in the Mediterranean world.
In September 2006, he expressed his solidarity to the
Palestinian people
Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine.
*: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous ...
while calling an end to all violence. He launched an appeal to "all Palestinian groups" to "listen to
Abu Mazen
Mahmoud Abbas (; born 15 November 1935), also known by the Kunya (Arabic), kunya Abu Mazen (, ), is a Palestinian politician who has been serving as the second president of Palestine and the President of the Palestinian National Authority, P ...
, put an end to the rocket attacks against Israel, free the Israeli corporal kidnapped last June, and work to put an end to the violence that has caused so much suffering to the Palestinian people" due to Israeli retaliation; in May 2021, he reiterated that while aggression from
Hamas
The Islamic Resistance Movement, abbreviated Hamas (the Arabic acronym from ), is a Palestinian nationalist Sunni Islam, Sunni Islamism, Islamist political organisation with a military wing, the Qassam Brigades. It has Gaza Strip under Hama ...
is unacceptable, "there is a lack of truth in the way this tragedy is being addressed. ...
e need totry to understand in some depth how a crisis of this kind explodes, why Hamas and the
Islamists have become so strong." He served in those posts until Prodi's government fell and Berlusconi's
The People of Freedom (PdL) prevailed in the
2008 Italian general election
A snap election was held in Italy on 13–14 April 2008. The election came after President of Italy, President Giorgio Napolitano dissolved the Italian Parliament on 6 February 2008, following the 2008 Italian political crisis, defeat of the gov ...
. D'Alema was re-elected to the Chamber of Deputies in this election as part of the newly formed PD.
The DS was one of the main founding parties of the PD, and D'Alema himself was a protagonist of the constituent phase.
When Veltroni became the new leader of the PD, two D'Alema's organizations hostile to factionalism sprang up: the Red Association and Red TV. In response, D'Alema clarified: "I don't intend to annoy Veltroni!"
After fourteen months, Veltroni resigned as the party secretary, and the two organizations dissolved themselves.
Mitrokhin Commission
In November 2006, the new
Italian Parliament
The Italian Parliament () is the national parliament of the Italy, Italian Republic. It is the representative body of Italian citizens and is the successor to the Parliament of the Kingdom of Sardinia (1848–1861), the Parliament of the Kingd ...
with a
centre-left coalition majority instituted a commission to investigate the
Mitrokhin Commission for allegations that it was manipulated for political purposes. The Mitrokhin Commission, which was established in 2002 by the
centre-right coalition majority closed in 2006 with a majority and a minority report, without reaching shared conclusions, and without any concrete evidence given to support the original allegations of
KGB
The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...
ties to Italian politicians contained in the
Mitrokhin Archive
The Mitrokhin Archive refers to a collection of handwritten notes about secret KGB operations spanning the period between the 1930s and 1980s made by KGB archivist Vasili Mitrokhin which he shared with British intelligence in the early 1990s. Mitr ...
. The centre-right coalition-led commission was criticized as politically motivated, as it was focused mainly on allegations against opposition figures.
November 2006 saw the publication of telephone interceptions between the chairman of the Mitrokhin Commission,
Forza Italia senator
Paolo Guzzanti
Paolo Guzzanti (born 1 August 1940) is an Italian journalist and politician.
Early life
Born in Rome, Guzzanti is the nephew of Elio Guzzanti and father to actors Corrado, Sabina, and Caterina. As a journalist, he worked for '' Avanti!'', '' ...
, and Scaramella. In the wiretaps, Guzzanti made it clear that the true intent of the Mitrokhin Commission was to support the hypothesis that Prodi would have been an agent financed or in any case manipulated by Moscow and the KGB. According to the opposition, which submitted its own minority report, this hypothesis was false, and the purpose of the commission was therefore to discredit opposition politicians. In the wiretaps, Scaramella had the task of collecting testimonies from some ex-agents of the Soviet secret service refugees in Europe to support these accusations; he was later charged for
calumny. In a December 2006 interview given to the television program ''La storia siamo noi'', colonel ex-KGB agent Oleg Gordievsky, whom Scaramella claimed as his source, confirmed the accusations made against Scaramella regarding the production of false material relating to D'Alema, Prodi, and other Italian politicians, and underlined their lack of reliability.
From the Democratic Party to Free and Equal
In 2010, D'Alema was elected president of the
Parliamentary Committee for the Security of the Republic (COPASIR), a position he held until 2013, and of the Foundation of European Progressive Studies (FEPS).
In 2012, when the PD experimented American-style primaries, D'Alema wanted to defend the old party traditions, and he disagreed with the idea to convert the historic workers' party to the practices of
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...
's politics as supported by Veltroni.
Since 2013, he was within the left-wing minority of the PD, alongside
Pierluigi Bersani,
Pippo Civati, and
Roberto Speranza, to
Matteo Renzi
Matteo Renzi (; born 11 January 1975) is an Italian politician who served as prime minister of Italy from 2014 to 2016. He has been a senator for Florence since 2018. Renzi has served as the leader of Italia Viva (IV) since 2019, having bee ...
and the
Renziani. His followers and those close to the position of D'Alema are known as ''dalemiani''. ''Dalemiani'' criticize the PD's Veltroanian Charter. ''Dalemiani'' support a party with an
anti-capitalist
Anti-capitalism is a political ideology and Political movement, movement encompassing a variety of attitudes and ideas that oppose capitalism. Anti-capitalists seek to combat the worst effects of capitalism and to eventually replace capitalism ...
aspiration, in contrast to the majoritarian aspirations, akin to Britain and the United States, and the reform and amelioration of capitalism.
They opposed the proposed Renzi's reforms for the
2016 Italian constitutional referendum, whose defeat caused the end of Renzi as prime minister and its reforms of the party from old politics. In 2017, in opposition to Renzi's policies and leadership, he was one of the founders of the left-wing split from the PD,
Article 1 – Democratic and Progressive Movement (Art.1), which became part of the centre-left political movement called
Free and Equal (LeU).
In the words of Francesco Cundari, author of the book ''Déjà-vu'', in which he recounts twenty-five years of the Italian left, "
on the one hand Veltroni and D'Alema can be reproached for a certain oligarchic conception of the party and of politics, on the other hand they should be recognized that in this way even the internal conflicts of that leadership group have never taken the form of tribal wars, as happened in the Democratic Party from the time of the Bersani–Renzi primary onwards."
According to Cundari, more than Renzi, it was the importation of the American party model that marked its definitive split.
In the
2018 Italian general election
The 2018 Italian general election was held on 4 March 2018 after the Italian Parliament was Dissolution of parliament in Italy, dissolved by President Sergio Mattarella on 28 December 2017. Voters were electing the 630 members of the Chamber of ...
, D'Alema was not elected a member of the
Senate of the Republic in the
single-member constituency for LeU. Since the 2018 general election, D'Alema, like Veltroni, left the political scenes and became an opinion leader.
D'Alema became an Extraordinary Professor at
Link Campus University, and continued his work as president of the Italianieuropei Foundation (since 2000) and director of the magazine of the same name,
which he founded in 1998.
During a party reunion in 2019 to celebrate his 70 years, D'Alema paraphrased
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...
's quote about the
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
, and said: "Whoever wants to restore communism is brainless, whoever doesn't remember it is heartless... and I'm deeply sentimental."
Ahead of the
2023 PD leadership election, some commentators argued that the contest between
Stefano Bonaccini and
Elly Schlein was remiscent of that of D'Alema and Veltroni, respectively;
in response, it was argued that Bonaccini did not possess the finesse and cynicism of D'Alema and that Veltroni, who said that he was never a communist, imported the American model of party politics.
During the first meeting of the constituent committee of 87 wise men appointed by
Enrico Letta
Enrico Letta (; born 20 August 1966) is an Italian politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy
The prime minister of Italy, officially the president of the Council of Ministers (), is the head of government of the Italy, Italian Republ ...
with the task of rewriting the PD's Manifesto of Values for a new PD in 2022, the D'Alema–Veltroni contrasting visions came back, as Art.1 later merged into the PD in 2023. While they were not part of it, their followers were; exponents of the internal left wing, both old (
Andrea Orlando) and new (Speranza) followed D'Alema's criticism of the
neoliberal
Neoliberalism is a political and economic ideology that advocates for free-market capitalism, which became dominant in policy-making from the late 20th century onward. The term has multiple, competing definitions, and is most often used pej ...
hegemony, on the crisis that would invest the formula of
liberal democracy
Liberal democracy, also called Western-style democracy, or substantive democracy, is a form of government that combines the organization of a democracy with ideas of liberalism, liberal political philosophy. Common elements within a liberal dem ...
plus market economy that, for D'Alema and his followers, entered into a deep and dramatic crisis.
Around the same period, he relaunched his call for an alliance between the PD and the
Five Star Movement
The Five Star Movement ( , M5S) is a political party in Italy, led by Giuseppe Conte. It was launched on 4 October 2009 by Beppe Grillo, a political activist and comedian, and Gianroberto Casaleggio, a web strategist. The party is primarily d ...
(M5S). About the M5S leader
Giuseppe Conte
Giuseppe Conte (; born 8 August 1964) is an Italian jurist, academic, and politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy, prime minister of Italy from June 2018 to February 2021. He has been the president of the Five Star Movement (M5S) sin ...
and the M5S, which he said that he did not vote for in the
2022 Italian general election
Snap election, Snap general elections were held in Italy on 25 September 2022. After the fall of the Draghi government, which led to a parliamentary impasse, President of Italy, President Sergio Mattarella dissolved Parliament on 21 July, and ca ...
, D'Alema said: "It is voted for by workers and people in economic difficulty much more than the Democratic Party. A part of the progressives chose him."
European politics and foreign policy views
D'Alema was briefly a
member of the European Parliament
A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament.
When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...
from 2004 to 2006. Since 2003, he has been a member of the scientific committee of
Michel Rocard
Michel Rocard (; 23 August 1930 – 2 July 2016) was a French politician and a member of the Socialist Party (France), Socialist Party (PS). He served as Prime Minister of France, Prime Minister under François Mitterrand from 1988 to 199 ...
and
Dominique Strauss-Kahn's association ''A gauche en Europe'' ("A Left in Europe"). He still figures on the European scene; he signed the
George Soros letter ("As Concerned Europeans") and called for a stronger
European integration
European integration is the process of political, legal, social, regional and economic integration of states wholly or partially in Europe, or nearby. European integration has primarily but not exclusively come about through the European Union ...
. Three year after the peace-keeping role in the 2006 Israeli–Lebanon war and beyond, D'Alema became one of the favourite candidates for the charges of president of the
European Council
The European Council (informally EUCO) is a collegiate body (directorial system) and a symbolic collective head of state, that defines the overall political direction and general priorities of the European Union (EU). It is composed of the he ...
,
, or
General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union, without being appointed. Since 30 June 2010, D'Alema is the president of the Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS), the
European political foundation of the PES. He was a friend of the Italian Freemason and banker Vincenzo De Bustis.
While Italian Foreign Minister in the second Prodi government, D'Alema took a proactive diplomatic stance during the
2006 Lebanon War
The 2006 Lebanon War was a 34-day armed conflict in Lebanon, fought between Hezbollah and Israel. The war started on 12 July 2006, and continued until a United Nations-brokered ceasefire went into effect in the morning on 14 August 2006, thoug ...
. Italy led negotiations with the Israeli foreign minister
Tzipi Livni
Tziporah Malka "Tzipi" Livni (, ; born 8 July 1958) is an Israeli politician, diplomat and lawyer.
A former member of the Knesset and leader in the center-left political camp, Livni is a former Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Israel), foreign mini ...
and was proposed by Israel to head the multinational peacekeeping mission
Unifil. The dangers of the mission for Italian troops sparked warnings from the centre-right coalition opposition that it could prove a kamikaze mission, with the peacekeepers sandwiched between Israel and the well-armed
Hezbollah
Hezbollah ( ; , , ) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and paramilitary group. Hezbollah's paramilitary wing is the Jihad Council, and its political wing is the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc party in the Lebanese Parliament. I ...
. He pledged Italy's willingness to enforce the United Nations resolution on Lebanon and urged other European Union member states to do the same because the stability of the Middle East should be a chief concern for Europeans. In November 2013, ahead of the
2014 European Parliament election, he said: "We cannot ignore what the eurosceptics are saying. We must take it into account. But the problem is how to answer their arguments and how to offer an answer. I believe politics should provide solutions – otherwise, it becomes propaganda."
D'Alema has been an advisor and mediator in the weapon's traffic from
Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
to
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...
.
Personal life
D'Alema is married to Linda Giuva, a professor at the
University of Siena, and has two children, Giulia and Francesco. D'Alema's passions include
association football
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...
, and he is a supporter of
AS Roma
Associazione Sportiva Roma (''Rome Sport Association''; Italian pronunciation: Help:IPA/Italian, ) is a professional Association football, football club based in Rome, Italy. Founded by a merger in 1927, Roma has participated in the top tier ...
, which he compared to the
political left
Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social hierarchies. Left-wing politi ...
, and said "we who are not used to winning the big games, we trained to suffer and unprepared to rejoice. We remember the defeats, with the fear that there will always be
penalties to miss in a European Cup final."
Giulio Andreotti
Giulio Andreotti ( ; ; 14 January 1919 – 6 May 2013) was an Italian politician and wikt:statesman, statesman who served as the 41st prime minister of Italy in seven governments (1972–1973, 1976–1979, and 1989–1992), and was leader of th ...
, the former prime minister of Italy, made him heir for life to the presidency of the Roma parliamentary group at
Montecitorio. About other Italian
football clubs
A football team is a group of players selected to play together in the various team sports known as football. Such teams could be selected to play in a match against an opposing team, to represent a football club, group, state or nation, an All-st ...
, D'Alema said: "I admire
Juve but, when they play, I always support the others.
Cossutta made me sympathize with
Inter by telling me it was called Internazionale. I like
Rivera from
Milan
Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...
. I was the only one to defend him, making him undersecretary in my government. A serious one. Of his
4–3 against Germany he said: I only put my foot in,
Boninsegna did everything."
Electoral history
First-past-the-post elections
Political career
Party politics
* 1975–1980: National Secretary of the
FGCI
* 1981–1986: Regional Secretary of the
PCI in
Apulia
Apulia ( ), also known by its Italian language, Italian name Puglia (), is a Regions of Italy, region of Italy, located in the Southern Italy, southern peninsular section of the country, bordering the Adriatic Sea to the east, the Strait of Ot ...
* 1986–1989: Editor of the daily newspaper ''
L'Unità''
* 1986–1992: Member of the
PCI/
PDS national secretariat
* 1992–1994: Chairman of the PDS members of Parliament
* 1994–1999: Leader of the PDS/
DS
* Since 1996: Vice-chairman of the
Socialist International
The Socialist International (SI) is a political international or worldwide organisation of political parties which seek to establish democratic socialism, consisting mostly of Social democracy, social democratic political parties and Labour mov ...
* 1998–2007: Chairman of the DS
Institutional politics
* 1970–1976:
Town councillor of
Pisa
Pisa ( ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Tuscany, Central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for the Leaning Tow ...
* 1985–1987: Regional councillor of
Apulia
Apulia ( ), also known by its Italian language, Italian name Puglia (), is a Regions of Italy, region of Italy, located in the Southern Italy, southern peninsular section of the country, bordering the Adriatic Sea to the east, the Strait of Ot ...
* 1987–2004: Chairman of the PCI/PDS/DS parliamentary group
* 1987–2013: Member of the
Chamber of Deputies
The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures.
Description
Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourb ...
* 1996–1998: Chairman of the Committee for Constitutional Reform
* 1998–2000:
Prime Minister of Italy
The prime minister of Italy, officially the president of the Council of Ministers (), is the head of government of the Italy, Italian Republic. The office of president of the Council of Ministers is established by articles 92–96 of the Co ...
* 2006–2008:
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and foreign relations, relations, diplomacy, bilateralism, ...
Awards
*

Officer of the
Legion of Honour
The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...
(France), 18 December 2001.
*

Grand Cross Knight of the
Order of Merit
The Order of Merit () is an order of merit for the Commonwealth realms, recognising distinguished service in the armed forces, science, art, literature, or the promotion of culture. Established in 1902 by Edward VII, admission into the order r ...
(Chile), 2005.
*

Grand Cross Knight of the
Order of Pope Pius IX (Vatican City), 20 November 2006.
*

Grand
Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria (Austria), 2007.
* Supreme awards from Palestine and South Korea.
Books
D'Alema published many books, several of which with
Mondadori
Arnoldo Mondadori Editore () is the biggest publishing company in Italy.
History
The company was founded in 1907 in Ostiglia by 18-year-old Arnoldo Mondadori who began his publishing career with the publication of the magazine ''Luce!''. In 19 ...
, which is controlled by
Fininvest
Finanziaria d'investimento Fininvest S.p.A., also known as Fininvest, is an Italian holding company controlled by the Berlusconi family and managed by Silvio Berlusconi's eldest daughter Marina Berlusconi.
Structure
The Fininvest group is com ...
, the family holding company of
Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; 29 September 193612 June 2023) was an Italian Media proprietor, media tycoon and politician who served as the prime minister of Italy in three governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a mem ...
, whose first government he staunchly opposed.
* ''La crisi del paese e il ruolo della gioventù. Comitato Centrale della FGCI 26-27 gennaio 1976. Relazione del Compagno Massimo D'Alema'' ("The Country's Crisis and the Role of Youth: Central Committee of the FGCI 26–27 January 1976. Report by Comrade Massimo D'Alema"). 1976.
* ''La formazione politica in un moderno partito riformatore'' ("Political Formation in a Modern Reform Party"). Edited with Franco Ottaviano. Rome: Togliatti Institute. 1988.
* ''Il partito nelle aree metropolitane'' ("The Party in the Metropolitan Areas"). Edited with Sandro Morelli. Rome: Togliatti Institute. 1988.
* ''Dialogo su Berlinguer'' ("Dialogue on Berlinguer"). With
Paul Ginsborg. Florence:
Giunti. 1994. .
* ''Un paese normale. La sinistra e il futuro dell'Italia'' ("A Normal Country: The Left and Italy's Future"). With
Gianni Cuperlo and . Milan: Mondadori. 1995. .
* ''Progettare il futuro'' ("Shaping the Future"). Edited with Gianni Cuperlo and Claudio Velardi Milan:
Bompiani
Bompiani is an Italian publishing house based in Milan. It was founded in 1929 by Valentino Bompiani. In 1990, Bompiani became part of the RCS MediaGroup. It was sold in 2015 to the Giunti Group. It is widely regarded as one of the leading liter ...
. 1996. .
* ''La sinistra nell'Italia che cambia'' ("The Left in the Changing Italy"). Milan:
Feltrinelli. 1997. .
* ''La grande occasione. L'Italia verso le riforme'' ("The Great Chance: Italy Towards Reforms"), Milan: Mondadori. 1997. .
* ''Parole a vista'' ("Words on Sight"). Edited by . Milan: Bompiani. 1998. .
* ''Kosovo. Gli italiani e la guerra'' ("Kosovo: Italians and War"). Interview with
Federico Rampini. Milan: Mondadori, 1999, .
* ''Oltre la paura'' ("Beyond Fear"). Milan: Mondadori. 2002. .
* ''La politica ai tempi della globalizzazione'' ("Politics in the Time of Globalization"). San Cesario di Lecce: Manni. 2003. .
* ''A Mosca, l'ultima volta. Enrico Berlinguer e il 1984'' ("In Moscow, the Last Time: Enrico Berlinguer and 1984"). Rome: Donzelli. 2004. .
* ''Il mondo nuovo. Riflessioni per il Partito democratico'' ("The New World: Reflections for the Democratic Party"). Rome: Italianieuropei. 2009. .
* ''Controcorrente. Intervista sulla sinistra al tempo dell'antipolitica'' ("Countercurrent: Interview on the Left at the Time of Anti-Politics"). Edited by
Giuseppe Caldarola. Rome: Laterza. 2013. .
* ''Non solo euro. Democrazia, lavoro, uguaglianza. Una nuova frontiera per l'Europa'' ("Not Just Euros: Democracy, Labour, Equality. A New Frontier for Europe"). Soveria Mannelli: Rubbettino. 2014. .
References
Bibliography
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Further reading
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:D'Alema, Massimo
1949 births
Article One (political party) politicians
Democratic Party (Italy) MEPs
Democratic Party (Italy) politicians
Democrats of the Left MEPs
Democratic Party of the Left politicians
Deputy prime ministers of Italy
Ministers of foreign affairs of Italy
Italian Communist Party politicians
Italian socialists
Living people
MEPs for Italy 2004–2009
Politicians from Rome
Prime ministers of Italy
L'Unità editors
University of Pisa alumni