Centre-left coalition (Italy)

The centre-left coalition (coalizione di centro-sinistra) is a political alliance of political parties in Italy active under several forms and names since 1995, when The Olive Tree was formed under the leadership of Romano Prodi. The centre-left coalition has ruled the country for more than fifteen years between 1996 and 2022; to do so, it had mostly to rely on a big tent that went from the more radical left-wing, which had more weight between 1996 and 2008, to the political centre, which had more weight during the 2010s, and its main parties were also part of grand coalitions and national unity governments.

The coalition mostly competed with the centre-right coalition led by Silvio Berlusconi. In the 1996 Italian general election, The Olive Tree consisted of the majority of both the left-wing Alliance of Progressives and the centrist Pact for Italy, the two losing coalitions in the 1994 Italian general election, the first under a system based primarily on first-past-the-post voting. In 2005, The Union was founded as a wider coalition to contest the 2006 Italian general election, which later collapsed due to Clemente Mastella during the 2008 Italian political crisis, with the fall of the second Prodi government.

In the late 2000s and early 2010s, the centre-left coalition has been built around the Democratic Party (PD), which was established in 2007 from a merger of Democrats of the Left and Democracy is Freedom, the main parties affiliated to both The Olive Tree and The Union. The centre-left coalition was part of Italian governments from November 2011 to June 2018, when a coalition government between the Five Star Movement (M5S) and the League was formed.

In September 2019, the centre-left returned to power in coalition with the M5S, with centre-left parties participating in the national unity government of Mario Draghi, who was the country's prime minister from February 2021 until the 2022 Italian government crisis in July that led to the 2022 Italian general election. Under an electoral law (Rosatellum) that favoured unity and coalitions, a divided centre-left, M5S, and PD's centrist split parties suffered a loss to the centre-right coalition, which won a majority of seats since the 2008 Italian general election. Since 2023, PD, M5S, Greens and Left Alliance (AVS) and minor leftist parties often run within the same coalition at local and regional level in the Progressive Camp.

Road to The Olive Tree
Following the 1994 Italian general election, which was won by the centre-right coalition of Silvio Berlusconi, the left-wing Alliance of Progressives and the centrist Pact for Italy started a parliamentary cooperation, which brought in March 1995 to the foundation of The Olive Tree. The historical leader and ideologue of these coalitions was Romano Prodi, Professor of Economics and former member of Christian Democracy (DC), who invented the name and the symbol of The Olive Tree with Arturo Parisi in 1995.

In 1995, Lega Nord exited the Pole of Freedoms and supported Lamberto Dini's technocratic government, together with the Pact for Italy and the Alliance of Progressives. On 21 April 1996, The Olive Tree won 1996 Italian general election with the Communist Refoundation Party (PRC) as an external ally, making Romano Prodi the Prime Minister of Italy. The Olive Tree's largest partner was the Democratic Party of the Left (PDS), which contained the bulk of the former Italian Communist Party. The PDS supplied 16 ministers and 10 junior ministers; it was the first time that former PCI members had taken part in government since 1947. One of their leaders, Walter Veltroni, who ran in ticket with Prodi in a long electoral campaign, was Deputy Prime Minister of Italy. On 9 October 1998, the first Prodi government fell when PRC left the alliance. Since 21 October 1998, The Olive Tree was the core of the governments led by Massimo D'Alema and by Giuliano Amato. When D'Alema became the new prime minister, it was the first time ever in both Italy and Western Europe that an heir of the Communist party tradition came to lead a government. On 13 May 2001, led by Francesco Rutelli, who ran in ticket with Piero Fassino, the centre-left coalition lost the general elections against Berlusconi and the House of Freedoms.

The Union
The Union was the direct heir of The Olive Tree. While The Union was an heterogenous alliance that also included Communist parties, they were not part of The Olive Tree. Prodi won the 2006 Italian general election by a very narrow margin due to the new electoral law enacted by Roberto Calderoli; Berlusconi refused to acknowledge defeat. Prodi's coalition proved to be extremely frail, as the two-vote margin in the Senate of the Republic allowed almost any party in the coalition to veto legislation and political views inside the coalition spanned from communists to Christian democrats.

On 7 May 2006, the centre-left coalition officially endorsed Giorgio Napolitano as its candidate in the 2006 Italian presidential election that began on 8 May. The Holy See endorsed him as the president of Italy through its official newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, just after The Union named him as its candidate, as did Marco Follini, former secretary of the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats (UDCC), a member party of the House of Freedoms. On 10 May 2006, Napolitano was elected in the fourth round of voting, the first of those requiring only an absolute majority, unlike the first three which required two-thirds of the votes, with 543 votes (out of a possible 1009). At the age of 80, he became the first former PCI member to become president of Italy

On 21 February 2007, less than a year after he had won the elections, Prodi tendered his resignation to Napolitano after the government was defeated in the Senate by two ballots in a vote on foreign policy. On 24 February, Napolitano invited Prodi to return to office and face a vote of confidence. Major causes of friction inside the coalition were the 2006 Pardon Act (it was criticised by the centre-right coalition and by the Italy of Values party), a draft bill to establish civil unions (vetoed by Christian democrats), Italy's continued involvement in Afghanistan (strongly opposed by left-wing parties), and the much publicised house-arrest of Clemente Mastella's wife (then a prominent politician at the regional level) over a corruption scandal. Mastella's party Union of Democrats for Europe held enough seats in the Senate that his eventual decision to withdraw its support for the government meant the end of the legislature on 6 February 2008. Mastella, who also resigned from his office as Minister of Justice, cited the proposed reform of the electoral system that would have made it difficult for small parties like his own to gain seats in the Italian Parliament, as well as the lack of personal support from his coalition partners' as one of the reasons behind his decision.

Foundation of the Democratic Party
The Democratic Party (PD) was founded on 14 October 2007 as a merger of various centre-left parties that had been part of The Union in the 2006 general election. At foundation, the majority of the PD was formed by the Democrats of the Left (DS), heirs of the PCI, and the largely Catholic-inspired Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy. Within the party, an important role is played by Christian leftists, who are direct heirs of the former DC's left wing. After the resignation of Silvio Berlusconi as prime minister in November 2011, the PD gave external support to Mario Monti's technocratic government.

Following the 2013 Italian general election and the 2014 European Parliament election in Italy, the PD was the largest party in the Chamber of Deputies, the Senate, and the European Parliament, respectively. Since April 2013, due to the inconclusive results of the 2013 general election held in February despite being the largest party and Pier Luigi Bersani's Italia. Bene Comune centre-left coalition, the PD member Enrico Letta was prime minister at the head of a government sustained by a grand coalition including The People of Freedom, which was later replaced by the New Centre-Right as the new Forza Italia (FI) went to the opposition, Civic Choice, and the Union of the Centre (UdC), the renamed UDCC that was later replaced by the Populars for Italy. Following his election as party leader in February 2014, Matteo Renzi called for "a new phase" and consequently the party's national board voted to ask Letta to resign. Subsequently, Renzi was sworn in as prime minister at the head of the same coalition.

By 2015, other than the national government, the PD led fifteen regional governments out of twenty and functioned as coalition partner in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. The 2016 Italian constitutional referendum was supported by the majority of the centre-left coalition. Inside the centre-left coalition, UdC, the Federation of the Greens, Autonomy Liberty Participation Ecology, Progressive Valdostan Union, Slovene Union, and Christian Popular Union campaigned for the "No" vote. The referendum was lost with 41% of "Yes" against 59% of "No" votes. After the referendum, Renzi tendered his resignation as prime minister and Paolo Gentiloni, also a member of the PD, became his successor. In the 2018 Italian general election, the centre-left coalition led by with Renzi obtained its worst result ever at 22.9% of the vote, well behind the centre-right coalition and the Five Star Movement (M5S). Following the defeat, Renzi resigned from secretary of the PD, and his deputy Maurizio Martina functioning afterwards as acting secretary.

In September 2019, the PD formed a coalition government with the M5S and the PD's left-wing split Free and Equal (LeU), which was supported by the members of the centre-left coalition in 2018. Following the 2021 Italian government crisis, which was caused by Renzi's Italia Viva (IV) centrist party, Giuseppe Conte was replaced by Mario Draghi. In February 2021, a national unity government including the PD, MS5, IV, Article One, and Berlusconi's FI and Matteo Salvini's rebranded and renamed League. The Draghi government collapsed during the 2022 Italian government crisis, leading to Draghi's resignation as prime minister that July and a snap general election being called for September. For the 2022 Italian general election, the centre-left coalition centered around the PD's Democratic and Progressive Italy electoral list, which was allied with the Civic Commitment, Greens and Left Alliance, and More Europe lists. Due to the Italian electoral law of 2015 that was supported by Renzi and that favoured unity and coalition, the centre-left coalition, which was not able to form alliances with the M5S (accused of causing the fall of Draghi's government) and the PD's centrist party splits that were opposed to the left-wing parties of the coalition, was defeated by the centre-right coalition led Brothers of Italy (the sole centre-right coalition to oppose the Draghi's government) of Giorgia Meloni, who returned to power for the first time since 2011.

1996–1998
In the 1996 Italian general election and during the first Prodi government, the coalition was composed of the following parties:

The coalition had the following regional partners:

The Olive Tree presented candidates of The Network and the Ladin Autonomist Union in some first-past-the-post constituencies. The coalition also made an agreement of desistance with the Communist Refoundation Party in some first-past-the-post constituencies, which ran under the banner of the Progressives.

1998–2001
In 1998, the Communist Refoundation Party brought down the first Prodi government. with a splinter faction forming the Party of Italian Communists. In 1998–2001, during the two governments led by Massimo D'Alema (1998–2000) and the one led by Giuliano Amato (2000–2001), the coalition was composed of eight parties:

2001 general election
In the 2001 Italian general election, the coalition was led by Francesco Rutelli, and was composed of nine parties:

The coalition had the following regional partners:

The Olive Tree made an agreement of desistance with the Communist Refoundation Party in the first-past-the-post constituencies.

2004 EP election
In the 2004 European Parliament election in Italy, the United in the Olive Tree joint list, was composed of four parties:

The list was connected with the following regional partners:

2006 general election
In the 2006 Italian general election, the coalition was composed of thirteen parties:

The coalition had the following regional partners:

The coalition was supported by the Autonomists for Europe, Radicals of the Left, and the New Action Party.

2008 general election
In the 2008 Italian general election, the coalition was led by Walter Veltroni, and was composed of three parties:

The coalition also had the following regional partners:

2013 general election
In the 2013 Italian general election, the coalition ran as Italy. Common Good under the leadership of Pier Luigi Bersani, and was composed of the following parties:

The coalition had the following regional partners:

2018 general election
In the 2018 Italian general election, the coalition was led by Matteo Renzi, and was composed of four electoral lists:

The coalition had the following regional partners:

The centre-left coalition was also supported by the Ladin Autonomist Union and the Slovene Union.

2022 general election
In the 2022 Italian general election, the alliance was formed by four parties:

The coalition contested the election in some regions under the following banners:

There were regional agreements between the centre-left coalition and Action – Italia Viva in Trentino for the Senate election and in Aosta Valley for both Chamber and Senate elections. The Italian Left ran instead with the Five Star Movement and Democratic Area in Aosta Valley.