The Terrible August of 2013

Following the collapse of Romano Prodi’s government, Massimo D’Alema became Italian premier from 1998 until 2000.

Silvio Berlusconi, Italian ex prime Minister, has been involved in a number of legal battles. In particular, he has been (i) convicted of paying for sex with an underage prostitute and of abuse of power for asking police to release her when she was arrested for theft, and subsequently cleared of all charges; (ii) convicted of tax fraud in case focusing on the purchase of the TV rights to US films by his company, Mediaset; and (iii) acquitted in several other cases; also convicted in several, only to be cleared on appeal; others expired under statute of limitations.

Giorgio Napolitano is the current President of the Italian Republic. He was elected for the first time in May 2006 and re-elected in April 2013.

On 30 August 2013, the President of the Italian Republic Giorgio Napolitano nominated four new life senators. The Italian Senate is made of about 95 % popularly elected senators on a five-year mandate, and a remaining minority of life appointed peers. The four latest life senators are architect Renzo Piano, Nobel laureate particle physicist Carlo Rubbia, world-renowned music conductor Claudio Abbado and pharmacology professor and stem-cell research expert Elena Cattaneo. These four personalities would, according to Napolitano, act in “absolute independence” and bring their contributions to highly significant areas in institutional life. Berlusconi’s party The People of Freedom harshly criticised the appointment of these four senators. One of the reasons was that all four new senators had been critical towards Berlusconi in the past, even though they never openly aligned themselves with the centre-left. If the four of them had voted in favour of the Democratic Party in the Senate, this would have changed the numbers in the upper chamber in quite a significant way: now the leftist Democratic Party needed merely 7 votes in order to have a majority that did not include Berlusconi’s party. 7 votes were likely to be obtained from 7 “dissidents” from Beppe Grillo’s 5 Star Movement, willing to vote with the Democratic Party.

Camillo Ruini is an Italian cardinal of the Catholic Church. On 14 February 2006, he was confirmed as president of the Italian Episcopal Conference by Pope Benedict XVI a post at which he served until March 2007.

President Giorgio Napolitano appointed Professor Mario Monti life senator on 9 November 2011. On 12 November 2011, following Berlusconi’s resignation, Napolitano asked Monti to form a new government. Monti accepted and held talks with the leaders of the main Italian political parties, declaring that he wanted to form a government that would remain in office until the next scheduled general elections in 2013. On 16 November 2011, Monti was sworn in as Prime Minister of Italy, with a technocratic cabinet composed entirely of unelected professionals.

Giulio Tremonti served in the government of Italy as Minister of Economy and Finances under Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi from 1994 to 1995, from 2001 to 2004, from 2005 to 2006, and from 2008 to 2011.

Giuseppe Piero “Beppe” Grillo is an Italian comedian, actor, blogger and political activist. He has been involved in political activity since 2009 as founder of the Italian political Five Star Movement, in order to bring together, via the Internet, people who share his ideals about honesty and direct democracy, and saying that politicians are the servants of the people and that they should work for the country only for a short time, that they should not have criminal records and that they should focus their attention on the problems of the country without any conflict of interest.

Red Brigades, Italian Brigate Rosse, militant left-wing organization in Italy that gained notoriety in the 1970s for kidnappings, murders and sabotage. Its self-proclaimed aim was to undermine the Italian state and pave the way for a Marxist upheaval led by a “revolutionary proletariat”. In 1978, the Red Brigades kidnapped and killed the leader of the Christian Democratic Party, Aldo Moro.

On 24 April 2013, Italian President of the Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, gave to the vice-secretary of the Democratic Party, Enrico Letta, the task of forming a government, having determined that Pier Luigi Bersani, leader of the winning coalition, could not form a government because it did not have a majority in the Senate. Angelino Alfano was Vice Prime Minister.

Bettino Craxi, byname of Benedetto Crax (1934–2000), Italian politician who became his nation’s first Socialist prime minister (1983–1987). In February 1993, multiple charges of political corruption forced Craxi to resign his post as party leader. He never denied that he had illegally solicited money for the Socialist Party but claimed that all the political parties had done so and that the Socialists were being targeted for political reasons. Craxi left Italy for Tunisia later that year, just before being convicted for some of the charges. He never returned to Italy.

Dorotei, were a leading faction of the Italian Christian Democrat party (DC) which took its name from the convent of Saint Dorotea in which it was founded in 1959.

Forze Nuove, leftist faction of the Italian Christian Democrat party (DC) led by Mr. Carlo Donat Cattin.

Xenophon, the Athenian, was born in 431 B.C. He was a pupil of Socrates. He marched with the Spartans and was exiled from Athens. Sparta gave him land and property in Scillus, where he lived for many years before having to move once more, to settle in Corinth. He died in 354 B.C. The Anabasis is his story of the March to Persia to aid Cyrus, who enlisted Greek help to try and take the throne from Artaxerxes, and the ensuing return of the Greeks, in which Xenophon played a leading role. This occurred between 401 B.C. and March 399 B.C.

Matteo Renzi, present leader of the Democratic Party and Prime Minister of the Italian Government since 22 February 2014.

Pope John Paul II was Pope of the Catholic Church from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005.