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Lamberto Dini
Prime Minister of Italy
In office 17 January 1995 – 17 May 1996
Preceded by	Silvio Berlusconi
Succeeded by	Romano Prodi
Born	March 1, 1931 Florence, Italy
Political party	non-aligned 1994-96; Rinnovamento Italiano 1996-2002; La Margherita 2002 to date

Lamberto Dini (help·info) (born March 1, 1931) is an Italian politician and economist, former Prime Minister and Foreign Minister.

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 Northern League 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 the Northern League, whereas his erstwhile partners in the right-wing government chose to abstain (while citing benevolence). In theory, his cabinet was a technocratic one.

In April, 1996, a general election was called, in which Berlusconi's House of Freedoms coalition, minus the Northern League, 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 Olive Tree with his own centrist party, Rinnovamento Italiano (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 dissolved into the Daisy-Democracy is Freedom, a larger party formed out of several centrist parties belonging to the centre-left coalition. The May 2001 a new general election was won by Berlusconi and his allies (including, once again, the Northern League), 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).

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