The 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. 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 merged into Democracy is Freedom – The 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).
Read more about this topic: Lamberto Dini
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