Italy: Collapse of ruling coalition - timeline
Searching more than 75 years of world history
Timeline
- November 2007. Italian President Giorgio Napolitano signs into law a decree authorising prefects (local representatives of the interior ministry) to expel from Italy any citizen of an EU state (other than Italy) deemed a threat to public security.
- July 2007. The government of Prime Minister Romano Prodi reaches an agreement on pension reform with the country's main union, including the raising of the retirement age from 57 to 61 by 2013.
- June 2007. Prodi narrowly survives an attempt by media magnate and former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's opposition centre-right House of Freedoms alliance to bring down the government over its handling of a banking scandal.
- May 2007. In local elections Berlusconi's House of Freedoms alliance wins in 14 of 19 major cities, particularly in the affluent northern region, a traditional stronghold of the right.
- April 2007. The centrist La Margherita alliance merges with the Democrats of the Left (DS), the largest party in the ruling Union coalition, to form the Democratic Party (PD).
- March 2007. Prodi is reaffirmed as prime minister after winning a vote of confidence.
- February 2007. Prodi resigns as prime minister after his ruling centre-left Union coalition loses a vote in the Senate (the upper house) on the continued deployment of Italian forces in Afghanistan and the expansion of a US military base in the north-eastern city of Vicenza.
- January 2007. Italy’s far left threatens to oppose Prodi’s approval of the expansion of a US military base at Vicenza, in protest at the foreign policy of the USA.
- July 2006. Berlusconi is accused of tax evasion and money laundering in connection with his television empire Mediaset.
- June 2006. In a national referendum, voters reject a constitutional reform bill, sponsored by Berlusconi and the Northern League (LN), to increase the autonomy of the country's 20 regions and strengthen the powers of the prime minister at the expense of those of the president.
- May 2006. Giorgio Napolitano, a life senator, is the first former communist to be elected Italy's president. He formally appoints Romano Prodi as prime minister and the 25-member cabinet.
- April 2006. In the closest election result in modern Italian history, Prodi's centre-left alliance, "The Union", wins a narrow majority over the ruling centre-right House of Freedoms coalition led by Berlusconi's Forza Italia party.
- December 2005. The Senate approves an electoral reform bill, returning the country to a system of PR.
- November 2005. The Senate approves by a 170-132 vote a constitutional reform bill that would increase the autonomy of the country's 20 regions, giving them more control over healthcare, education, and law and order. The bill is sponsored by Prime Minister Berlusconi and the LN.
- January 2004. The Constitutional Court declares unconstitutional a law that would have granted immunity to the highest five offices of state.
- October 2003. Italy’s three largest trade unions strike to protest the government’s proposed pension reforms. The government proposes full pensions should be paid only to people who have made contributions for 40 years, up from 35 years.
- December 2002. The Senate (upper house of the bicameral legislature) in a 151-to-89 vote passes legislation extending regional control over health, education, and policing. The separatist LN had threatened to withdraw from the four-party ruling coalition if the bill was not enacted.
- October 2001. Italy's highest tribunal, the Court of Cassation, acquits Berlusconi of bribery charges.
- May 2001. The centre-right House of Freedoms alliance led by Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party wins a decisive electoral victory.
- June 2000. A Milan judge clears opposition leader Berlusconi of using bribery to gain control of the Mondadori publishing company in 1991.
- May 2000. An appeals court in Milan overturns 1998 bribery conviction of Berlusconi.
- October 1998. The government of Prime Minister Prodi collapses on Oct. 9 after the hardline Communist Refoundation (RC) withdraws support because of disagreements over the 1999 budget.
- July 1998. Berlusconi is found guilty of complicity in bribing tax inspectors in return for lenient audits at his Fininvest Group. He receives prison sentences for this and other convictions.
- June 1998. Proposals to rewrite parts of the constitution of 1948 are rejected in a Chamber of Deputies (the lower house) vote after Berlusconi opposes the reform of presidential powers and the lack of provisions diluting the powers of prosecuting magistrates.
- January 1997. The Senate votes 256 to 16 to establish a 70-member bicameral commission to modernise the constitution of 1948.
- May 1996. A vote of confidence in the Chamber of Deputies passes by 322 votes to 299, clearing the way for the centre-left "Olive Tree" coalition led by Prodi to take office.
- April 1996. The centre-left coalition wins elections.
- January 1996. Italian President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro accepts the resignation of interim Prime Minister Lamberto Dini and his government, the 54th government to fall in Italy since the end of the World War II.
- May 1995. The government of Dini reaches agreement with trade unions on pension system reform.
- January 1995. President Scalfaro appoints Dini as prime minister. Dini, treasury minister in the outgoing cabinet and a former general manager of the Bank of Italy, appoints a cabinet of "technocrats". He wins a confidence vote with the support of left-wing parties (excepting the RC) and the LN.
- December 1994. The ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Berlusconi's Forza Italia collapses after the LN withdraws its support.
- December 1994. A Milan court sentences former socialist Prime Minister Bettino Craxi in absentia to five-and-a-half years’ imprisonment for corruption in connection with the sale of the ENI energy and chemicals group. The verdict is part of the "Clean Hands" investigation into allegations of illegal party financing.
- November 1994. In what is described as Italy’s biggest post-war demonstration, between 1.2 and 1.5 million protesters in Rome take part in rallies organised by trade unions in opposition to the government’s budget proposals. The government manages to avert a national strike by cancelling pension reforms.
- August 1993. The electoral law is reformed.
- March 1994. The rightist "Freedom Coalition"--consisting of Forza Italia (led by Berlusconi), the neo-fascist AN (led by Gianfranco Fini), and the regional-separatist LN (led by Umberto Bossi) wins legislative elections.
- December 1992. In municipal elections in 55 communes and in provincial elections in La Spezia (Liguria), the LN becomes the largest party in northern Italy, and increases its support in central Italy, at the expense of the Christian Democratic and Socialist parties.
- October 1992. The government’s austerity budget reforming the health service, pensions, the civil service, and local government sparks mass demonstrations and strikes.
- April 1992. In the first election to take place under the revised electoral law, no party emerges with a clear majority. The Christian Democrats slip in representation, while neo-fascist and regional parties grow.
- November 1991. The separatist Lombardy League (soon to be renamed the Northern League--LN) wins elections in, and gains control of the city council of, Brescia, Lombardy, with 24.4 per cent of the vote. This marks the first time the Christian Democrats have not held the city since 1947.
- June 1991. In a national referendum, 95.6 per cent of voters approve a package of reforms to the electoral law intended to improve parliament’s ability to form longer-lasting governments.
- February 1991. The Italian Communist Party disbands to form the Democratic Party of the Left (PDS).
- July 1989. Giulio Andreotti is sworn in as prime minister to lead Italy’s 49th postwar government. The government coalition consists of the same five parties (Christian Democrats–DC, Socialist Party–PSI, Republican Party–PRI, Liberal Party–PLI and Democratic Socialist Party–PSDI) that have been in power for the last eight years. It also marks the fifth time Andreotti has been appointed as prime minister.
- July 1986. Four weeks after Prime Minister Bettino Craxi dissolves his coalition comprising parties on both sides of the political spectrum, he reappoints a new cabinet from the same parties.
- December 1985. Craxi dissolves his coalition government amid internal dissension over the aftermath of the Achille Lauro hijacking and in particular the release from Italian custody of Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the Palestinian group that perpetrated the attack.
- August 1983. PSI leader Bettino Craxi wins a vote of confidence after legislative elections put him at the head of a Socialist-led coalition.
- June 1980. The Christian Democrats win the largest percentage of the vote in local and regional elections. The Communists come second.
- January 1979. The coalition government led by Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti crumbles under the pressure of protracted industrial disputes, including a hospital workers strike, and because the Republican Party (which won only 3 per cent of the vote in the last election) threatens to withdraw from the coalition unless the country joins the European Community (EC)’s exchange rate mechanism (ERM).
- March 1978. Former Prime Minister Aldo Moro is kidnapped in broad daylight by the Red Brigade militant group and found dead 54 days later.
- October 1975. The Italian and Yugoslav governments settle the last open European border question from World War II, that of Trieste.
- August 1974. Italy cuts government spending and secures finance from West Germany in an effort to stem a massive balance of payments deficit and rampant domestic inflation.
- 1970 - 1974 Extreme left and extreme right groups both perpetuate violent political acts. Political life in Italy is marked by a level of violence unprecedented since the years before the Fascists came to power in 1922.
- June 1964. Membership in the Italian Communist Party is approximately 1,630,00, making it the second largest Communist party in a non-Communist country.
- June 1964. The government of Prime Minister Aldo Moro resigns after losing a vote in the Chamber of Deputies.
- December 1963. The Italian Socialist Party joins the government for the first time since 1947.
- March 1957. Italy is a charter signatory of the Treaty of Rome, which establishes the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom).
- October 1954. Italy and Yugoslavia peaceably resolve the Trieste issue, leaving Italy with the city and granting some territorial concessions to Yugoslavia.
- July 1949. The Italian Chamber of Deputies and Senate ratifies the North Atlantic Treaty, tying Italy into military co-operation with other countries of Western Europe, the USA, and Canada.
- June 1946. Following a referendum, the monarchy is abolished. .
- March 1947. A new constitution is devised, to be adopted in 1948.
- January 1944. A congress of Italian political parties condemns the Fascist government’s alliance with Nazi Germany and calls for the resignation of King Victor Emmanuel, the formation of a government, and the establishment of a functioning parliament.
- September 1943. "Recognising the impossibility of continuing the unequal struggle against the formidable power of the enemy, [and] with the object of avoiding further and more grievous harm to the nation", Italy surrenders to Allied commander Dwight Eisenhower.
- October 1940. Italy attacks Greece from bases in Albania.
- June 1940. Italy declares war on the UK and France.
- October 1935. A committee of the League of Nations discusses sanctions in response to the Italian invasion of Ethiopia.
- September 1935. The Italian cabinet rejects calls by the League of Nations to retreat from Ethiopia.
