Background
Dini, Lamberto was born on March 1, 1931 in Florence, Italy.
Diplomat economist minister of foreign affairs politician Prime Minister of Italy private sector banker member of the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian Republic
Dini, Lamberto was born on March 1, 1931 in Florence, Italy.
University of Florence, Italy, 1950-1955, Doctor of Economics. University of Minnesota, 1957-1958, University of Michigan, 1958-1959, Post Graduate Study & Research in Economy. Spoken languages: Italian, English, French, Spanish.
He was the 51st Prime Minister of Italy from 1995 to 1996 and Foreign Minister from 1996 to 2001. 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 the Berlusconi I Cabinet in May 1994, in which Dini served as Treasury Minister. In January 1995, Dini was appointed Prime Minister by the then President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro.
Dini also took the portfolio for treasury in the cabinet and was a non-elected prime minister and minister. His cabinet was a technocratic one. 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, Relations between Dini and Berlusconi had seriously soured by then, and Dini chose to join 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. 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).
As protagonist of the defeat of the government of Prime Minister Romano Prodi in a January 2008 Senate vote, in view of the 2008 Italian general election Dini joined , the newly created Italian liberal-conservative party led by Silvio Berlusconi.
In September 2007, a month before Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy merged with the Democrats of the Left to form the new big tent centre-left Democratic Party, Dini broke away from The Daisy to form the Liberal Democrats, a new incarnation of Italian Renewal.
Married; 1 child.