Editing Romano Prodi (section)

===The Olive Tree and 1996 election===
{{see also|1996 Italian general election|The Olive Tree (Italy)|Prodi I Cabinet}}
[[File:Romano Prodi 1996.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Prodi during the electoral campaign in 1996]]
On 13 February 1995 Prodi, along with his close friend [[Arturo Parisi]], founded his political alliance [[The Olive Tree (Italy)|The Olive Tree]].<ref>[http://archivio.corriere.it/Archivio/interface/landing.html E Berlusconi prepara un "contratto con gli Italiani"]</ref> Prodi's aim was to build a centre-left coalition composed by centrist and leftist parties, opposed to the centre-right alliance led by Silvio Berlusconi, who resigned from the office of prime minister few weeks before, when [[Lega Nord]] withdrew his support to the government. The movement was immediately supported by [[Mariotto Segni]], leader of the centrist [[Segni Pact]]; after few weeks the post-communist [[Democratic Party of the Left]] of [[Massimo D'Alema]], the PPI and the [[Federation of the Greens]] also joined the Olive Tree coalition.

On 19 February 1996, the outgoing Prime Minister [[Lamberto Dini]] announced that he would run in the election with a new party called [[Italian Renewal]], allied with Prodi's Olive Tree rather than Berlusconi's [[Pole for Freedoms]]. Shortly after, Berlusconi claimed that Dini "copied his electoral programme".<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://cronologia.leonardo.it/storia/a1996a2.htm |title=Cronoligia, anno 1996 – Mese di Febbraio |access-date=3 May 2017 |archive-date=8 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208075245/http://cronologia.leonardo.it/storia/a1996a2.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>

On election day, Prodi's Olive Tree coalition won over Berlusconi's Pole for Freedoms, becoming the first coalition composed of a post-communist party to win a general election since the [[Second World War]]. In the Senate, The Olive Tree obtained the majority; in the Chamber, it required the external support of [[Communist Refoundation Party]]. On 17 May 1996, Prodi received from President [[Oscar Luigi Scalfaro]] the task of forming a new government.<ref>[http://www.repubblica.it/online/fatti/rifondazione/prodi/prodi.html La storia del governo Prodi]</ref> He ultimately formed a [[Prodi I Cabinet|23-member cabinet]] that included 16 PDS ministers (including Deputy Prime Minister [[Walter Veltroni]]) and 10 PDS junior ministers–the first (former) Communists to take part in government in half a century.