Centre-left coalition (Italy)

Since 2023, PD, M5S, Greens and Left Alliance (AVS) and minor leftist parties often run within the same coalition at local and regional level in the Progressive Camp.

[1][2] Following the 1994 Italian general election, which was won by the centre-right coalition of Silvio Berlusconi, the left-wing Alliance of Progressives and the centrist Pact for Italy started a parliamentary cooperation, which brought in March 1995 to the foundation of The Olive Tree.

[3] The historical leader and ideologue of these coalitions was Romano Prodi, Professor of Economics and former member of Christian Democracy (DC), who invented the name and the symbol of The Olive Tree with Arturo Parisi in 1995.

[4] In 1995, Lega Nord exited the Pole of Freedoms and supported Lamberto Dini's technocratic government, together with the Pact for Italy and the Alliance of Progressives.

On 21 April 1996, The Olive Tree won 1996 Italian general election with the Communist Refoundation Party (PRC) as an external ally, making Romano Prodi the Prime Minister of Italy.

On 13 May 2001, led by Francesco Rutelli, who ran in ticket with Piero Fassino, the centre-left coalition lost the general elections against Berlusconi and the House of Freedoms.

Prodi won the 2006 Italian general election by a very narrow margin due to the new electoral law enacted by Roberto Calderoli; Berlusconi refused to acknowledge defeat.

At the age of 80, he became the first former PCI member to become president of Italy On 21 February 2007, less than a year after he had won the elections, Prodi tendered his resignation to Napolitano after the government was defeated in the Senate by two ballots in a vote on foreign policy.

Major causes of friction inside the coalition were the 2006 Pardon Act (it was criticised by the centre-right coalition and by the Italy of Values party), a draft bill to establish civil unions (vetoed by Christian democrats), Italy's continued involvement in Afghanistan (strongly opposed by left-wing parties), and the much publicised house-arrest of Clemente Mastella's wife (then a prominent politician at the regional level) over a corruption scandal.

Mastella's party Union of Democrats for Europe held enough seats in the Senate that his eventual decision to withdraw its support for the government meant the end of the legislature on 6 February 2008.

Mastella, who also resigned from his office as Minister of Justice, cited the proposed reform of the electoral system that would have made it difficult for small parties like his own to gain seats in the Italian Parliament, as well as the lack of personal support from his coalition partners' as one of the reasons behind his decision.

[17][18] Following the 2021 Italian government crisis, which was caused by Renzi's Italia Viva (IV) centrist party, Giuseppe Conte was replaced by Mario Draghi.

In February 2021, a national unity government including the PD, MS5, IV, Article One, and Berlusconi's FI and Matteo Salvini's rebranded and renamed League.