Holidays in Italy + History of Italy

Holidays in Italy

Holidays in Italy are a great idea, as Italy has allot to do. Italy has many thinfgs to do on a Holiday, it has fun in the plenty. Italy (Italia) is a republic in the south of Europe. It is a boot-shaped peninsula together with two large islands in the Mediterranean Sea: Sicily and Sardinia. It is one of the countries that uses the Euro currency. The capital is Rome (Roma), but the economic capital is Milan (Milano) in the north. Italy has won the Football WorldCup three (3) times: 1934, 1938 and 1982. Some of world's best Football teams come from Italy. The latter include Milan AC, Inter Milano FC, AS Roma, Lazio (also from Rome), Juventus (from Torino) and Fiorentina (from Florence). Italy is also well-known for its food (pizza, pasta, etc.) and the leaning tower of Pisa. Pisa is a beautiful small town in Tuscany, and the tower wasn't built to be leaning, but began leaning soon after they started construction around the thirteenth century. Italy has a diversified industrial economy with approximately the same total and per capita output as France and the United Kingdom. This capitalistic economy remains divided into a developed industrial north, dominated by private companies, and a less developed agricultural south, with more than 20% unemployment. Most raw materials needed by industry and more than 75% of energy requirements are imported. For several years Italy has adopted budgets compliant with the requirements of the European Monetary Union (EMU); representatives of government, labor, and employers also agreed to an update of the 1993 "social pact," which has been widely credited with having brought Italy's inflation into conformity with EMU requirements. Italy must work to stimulate employment, promote wage flexibility, hold down the growth in pensions, and tackle the informal economy. Growth was 1.3% in 1999 and should edge up to 2.6% in 2000, led by investment and exports.

History of Italy

Excavations throughout Italy reveal a modern human presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period some 200,000 years ago. In the 8th and 7th centuries BC Greek colonies were established all along Sicily and the southern part of the Italian Peninsula. Subsequently Romans referred to this area as Magna Graecia as it was so densely inhabited by Greeks. Ancient Rome, at first a small agricultural community founded circa 8th century BC, grew the next centuries into a colossal empire encompassing the whole Mediterranean Sea, in which Ancient Greek and Roman cultures merged into one civilization, so influential that parts of it survive in modern law, administration, philosophy and arts forming the ground where Western civilization is based upon. In its twelve-century existence, it transformed from a republic to monarchy and finally to autocracy. In steady decline since 2nd century AD, the empire finally broke into two parts in 285 AD, a western and an eastern. The western part under the pressure of Goths finally dissolved leaving the Italian peninsula divided into small independent kingdoms and feuding city states for the next 14 centuries, and the eastern part as the sole heir to Roman legacy.

Middle Ages

Following a short recapture of the peninsula by Byzantine Emperor, Justinian at 6th cen. AD from the Ostrogoths a new wave of Germanic tribes, the Lombards, soon arrived to Italy from the north. For several centuries the armies of the Byzantines were strong enough to prevent Arabs, Holy Roman Empire, or the Papacy from establishing a unified Italian Kingdom, but at the same time too weak to fully unify the former Roman lands. Nevertheless during early Middle Ages Imperial orders such as the Carolingians, the Ottonians and Hohenstaufens managed to impose their overlordship in Italy.

Italy's regions eventually interlocked to their neighbouring empires' conflicting interests and would remain divided up to 19th century. It was during this vacuum of authority that the region saw the rise of Signoria and Comune. In the anarchic conditions that often prevailed in medieval Italian city states, people looked to strong men to restore order and disarm the feuding elites. In times of anarchy or crisis, cities sometimes offered the Signoria to individuals perceived as strong enough to save the state, most notably Della Scala family in Verona, Visconti in Milan and Medici in Florence.

Italy during this period became notable for its merchant Republics. These city-states, oligarchical in reality, had a dominant merchant class which under a relative freedom nurtured academic and artistic advancement. The four classic Maritime Republics in Italy were Venice, Genoa, Pisa, Amalfi reflecting the temporal sequence of their dominance.

Venice and Genoa were Europe's gateway to trade with the East, with the former producer of the renown venetian glass, whilst Florence was the capital of silk, wool, banks and jewelry. The Maritime Republics were heavily involved in the Crusades, taking advantage of the new political and trading opportunities, most evidently in the conquest of Zara and Constantinople funded by Venice.

During late Middle Ages Italy was divided into smaller city states and territories: the kingdom of Naples controlled the south, the Republic of Florence and the Papal States the centre, the Genoese and the Milanese the north and west, and the Venetians the east. Fifteenth-century Italy was one of the most urbanised areas in Europe and the birthplace of Renaissance. Florence, in particular with the writings of Dante Alighieri (1265–1321), Francesco Petrarch (1304–1374) and Giovanni Boccaccio (c. 1313–1375), as well as the painting of Giotto di Bondone (1267–1337) is considered the center of this cultural movement. Scholars like Niccolò de' Niccoli and Poggio Bracciolini scoured the libraries in search of works of classical authors as Plato, Aristotle, Euclid, Ptolemy, Cicero and Vitruvius.

The Black Death pandemic in 1348 left its mark on Italy by killing one third of the population. The recovery from the disaster led to a resurgence of cities, trade and economy which greatly stimulated the successive phase of the Humanism and Renaissance. In 1494 the French king Charles VIII opened the first of a series of invasions, lasting up to sixteenth century, and a competition between France and Spain for the possession of the country. Ultimately Spain prevailed through the Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis which recognised Spanish dominance over the Duchy of Milan and the Kingdom of Naples. The holy alliance between Habsburg Spain and the Holy See resulted in the systematic persecution of any Protestant movement. Austria succeeded Spain as hegemon in Italy under the Peace of Utrecht. Through Austrian domination, the northern part of Italy, gained economic dynamism and intellectual fervor. The French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars (1796–1815) introduced the ideas of equality, democracy, law and nation.

Kingdom of Italy (1861-1946)

The creation of the Kingdom of Italy was the result of the efforts by Italian nationalists and monarchists loyal to the House of Savoy to establish a united kingdom encompassing the entire Italian Peninsula. In the context of 1848 liberal revolutions that swept through Europe an unsuccessful war was declared on Austria. Giuseppe Garibaldi popular amongst southern Italians led the Italian republican drive for unification in southern Italy, while the northern Italian monarchy of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia whose government was led by Camillo Benso, conte di Cavour, had the ambition of establishing a united Italian state under its rule. The kingdom successfully challenged Austrian Empire in the Second Italian War of Independence with the help of Napoleon III, liberating the Lombardy-Venetia. In 1866 Victor Emmanuel II aligned the kingdom to Prussia during the Austro-Prussian War waging the Third Italian War of Independence which allowed Italy to annex Venice. In 1870, as France during the disastrous Franco-Prussian War abandoned its positions in Rome, Italy rushed to fill the power gap by taking over the Papal State from French sovereignty. Italian unification finally was achieved, and shortly afterwards Italy's capital was moved to Rome.

As Northern Italy was industrialized and modernized, the south became overcrowded, forcing millions of people to emigrate for a better life abroad. The Sardinian Statuto Albertino of 1848, extended to the whole Kingdom of Italy in 1861, provided for basic freedoms, but the electoral laws excluded the non-propertied and uneducated classes from voting. In 1913 male universal suffrage was allowed. The Socialist Party became the main political party, outclassing the traditional liberal and conservative organisations. Starting from the last two decades of the nineteenth century, Italy developed into a colonial power by forcing Somalia, Eritrea and later Libya and Dodecanese under its rule. During World War I Italy stayed at first neutral, but in 1915, signed the London Pact entering Entente, promised Trento, Trieste, Istria, Dalmatia and parts of Ottoman Empire. During the war, 600,000 Italians died and the economy collapsed. Under the Peace Treaty of Saint-Germain, Italy obtained just Bolzano-Bozen, Trento, Trieste and Istria in a victory defined as "mutilated" by public.

Italy's elite say, in the late 1910s,
'We're going down the drain',
Angry at strikes/socialists/elections/secularism,
Nats' elitist gangs fascist P, start,
And their rebel police by 23 kill 244 lefties,
In partly status brawls,
They shut unions/elected councils,
This was as high a percentage as what had happen before the 19thC,

But now extremist PS, were killing more union organisers,
So actually this was a big increase in rightist killing,
Ex-school bully Mussolini leads elites funded gangs to Rome,
Made PM by the crap sicko WW1 king,
Who was never that popular a organisation anyhow,
Wanting the large slips of land in W-Yugoslavia, & more,
The offer, being too great for it,

It has to be remembered the king backed the military intervention in WW1,
That saw so many Italian deaths,
Aswell as the PM,
Being appointed by someone he helped place,

& choose in power, & imperial attacks, afore,
Being partly vital to the invasion,
When normally the political members,
Helped appoint the PM,

The fascist supporters say a strongman'd make order of calm strikes chaos,
When they were doing all of the killing & chaos,
Just like racism, & hating of nerds, & weird, looking people,
Horrible women, seeking richer men, or other richer people,
Will always support racism, & fascism,

And a few strikes, often rose poor's wages, so there,
It is felt that the king,
Did not want to oppose a gang that was far weaker & smaller than the army,
And supported his relatives who were in the P,

So a ideal such people supported was declared all powerful,
With some important advisors also saying that the P, would help against Communists,
The king himself supported the coup, as the Communists, were his fear,
Also the government had said, please ban the march, he had refused,
So it was monarchy to blame,
The monarch was to support all Italy's wars too 1943,
Their popularity fell later, when they fled Rome, unlike the Pope, during crisis in WW2,
The regime also like other far right regimes said women should stay at home,

I must also add that the Pope in 1914 supported the Austrian invasion of Serbia in WW1,
As it was Catholic,
But the next Pope, who served most of the war also opposed World war one,
And supported a truce, especially after the Austrians started to lose,
The Italian Pope, still opposed the Italian state and monarchy as of it's ousting,
The peace negotiations, were silly,
As surely once the Austrians were in trouble they should have just quit,
I mean they knew Britain and France would suffer at the start of the war,
So if they started to win, they would try and gain from the war,
A way of making Germany unable to attack again, by a crushing win,
They did not go that far, but surely,

The fact Austria started the war,
Meant the Brits and French if they were winning the war,
Would then even if offered a peace of what it was the same as when they started,
Just want more, not the same situation as before,
Once the war started Britain and France would fight to a crushing win,
And actually they fought to less of a victory than that,

'Corporate Socialism', is created,
With them claiming it helps workers & businesses,
To lead, in sharing in committees,
Only the elite would like this, really, which is why they supported it, and workers did not,

It bans strikes,
Theoretically unions, and firms deal,
But they lead, & really the unions were powerless,
And P leaders helped lead companies, in corruption,
With unions leaders just appointed by thug P, gang members, and others,

The regime was a dictatorship from 25,
With no effective plural democratic power balance,
With a famous assassination, of the Socialist opposition leader that year, the symbol,
The name of the guy killed was Matteotti,

Who had also just written a stinging attack, claiming Italy was becoming dictatorial,
The guys who killed him were allowed to flee, by the king, and leader,
Not just a bit undemocratic, but as undemocratic as the USSR,
Well I think a good thing is like right wingers, to say they when mentioning,
The hugely reviled right wing dictators then mention loads more leftist murderers,
We should be prepared to mention a leftist dictator then loads of not famous rightist ones,

Indeed the murder, so obviously by the Fascists,
Just as the last year of the last independent police found,
Persuaded many socialists to leave the parliament,
They tried to persuade the king to fire the dictator,

But the king ignored the opinion of Maybe most people, and that was ignored,
Just after the new constitution and thug gangs had given the thug P a big majority,
And after the unfairness,
Of making the P that wins most votes get a huge amount of seats,

But that was not done, & Italy was now a dictatorship,
Where the dictator probably could not be ousted by any individual,
Or even an election now,
As elections became even more corrupt than just before 1925,
When that corruption, & bias was starting,
But now they were totally fixed,

It kills 500-639 Italian critics too the mid 20s,
By murderous gangs, mostly versus masons, & leftists,
Half before the takeover of power,
Aligned with far right police & far right gangs,
Half when in government, half before,

Adding on low singles deaths in Corfu being taken from Greece, in 20s,
And low 10s, in Italy of the libs, in the early 20s, shelling a fascist ruled Fiume,
So stopping it being ruled by them, maybe you can blame the fascists.
As if it had carried on being ruled by the far right it would have been unfair,
Yes ousting a evil regime, that was illegal,

But many of the libs, were really fascists, using the title lib,
So that is uncertain who to blame, but if they attacked them they were libs,
But they were doing it for a good reason, & do defeat a rightist insanity,
And to stop the lands having bad relations, and stop a dictator ruling it,

Also 12000 Italians died in 1921,
As of returning soldiers from the war, sore aiding the sickness,
Which can be blamed on the right as they supported the war,
And the socialists opposed it, & supported better welfare,

The P, that tookover Italy in the 1920s, had been left wing in the 1910s,
But had supported WW1, so was evicted from the socialists,
And had been co-opted by conservatives and imposed by them,
And had started to hate socialists and adopt rightist views,
That made them right wing, just like if a nation that is leftist elects rightists,
It does not stay leftist you see,

Then it did so badly on elections, it in 1919, became far right, opposing socialists,
They then aligned with the what were essentially by now, & always had been far right Liberals,
When they finished behind them & the socialists with less than 10% of votes,
They became very rightist now, opposing divorce, & internationalism,
All socialist policies, like a minimum wage were dropped,
& the P, was now to the right of the Libs,

And had stopped being in coalition with it,
Now supporting monarchy, & strong government,
And even a policy of making all Italians, including those in France, & Croatia, in Italy,
It had only won 7% of the votes in the 1921 election,

& was still as popular as that in the 1922,
When the king put it in power,
Against the will of politicians, & Ps,
The king as the only balance of power did nothing to stop this dictator,

Then taking over the land, & helped him,
With now a increase in the fact the king had loads of cash,
And the PM, when if socialists had won it just would have been a republic,
With no mass of cash to the rich dictators,

I suppose if politics becomes the fight between left and right,
Then the fight between Catholic and Protestants reduces,
And Maybe that will see less deaths, as one side depends on trying to be good,
So the other will, as they are influenced by that,
And Maybe that is good to then have good v evil,
And better if it was good v other good,
Or Maybe even peace, and just some debate,

Politicians, across Europe, were now being paid wages,
Some may say this is unfair, and that it would be better to not be paying them,
But it was seen, that before this,
Then in Britain before 1900, only the rich could afford to be MPs,
Which was silly, as then only the rich were represented,
And the poor were very far from society, with politicians, not in touch with the views,
Yes none of us are in touch, with everything, but there needs to be a cross section,
Of all the good people, and some of the others if they are trying to do good,

And without the wages, the MPs, are more likely to be in it for money,
As they need it, and want the money,
Britain's parliament stopped having mass corruption in the mid 19thC,
But still remained some,
And never had as much as 17thC Britain,

So there was less corruption, and representative systems,
And there needs to be rulers, so it is better rulers rule who are servants of the people,
And are paid on a wage by the public and eachother's votes,
Rather than by dictators or corruption, and such,
And then the democratic representatives,
Have to please the people, in a proper democracy,
And do this by saying their views, Maybe ignoring the bad, but not the good,

And then even add unusual views,
Which may be good, or show their brain is working, and ready for later crisis,
So parliament can be good, when it decides if an important bill is right,
By passing unimportant bills, they think matter, and affects loads of people,
And influences what people think of the MPs, and whether they will vote for them,
But the wages should not be too high, so it is, not out of touch,
But they can debate in parliament debating, being a entertainment,
And saying what people think, and trying to make society progress by good intentions,
But as I say the major anti-corruption way should be people's morals,

This had been done, by using the coalition the king let the P, rule,
Make Nats become a part of the P, that doubled the Ps, seats,
Then chucking out rivals, who opposed brutal anti-Communist ways from the cabinet,
The libs & Catholics remaining were the right of their Ps, & they allowed this,

And allowed intimidation which passed that law in 1924,
Which meant whichever P,
Won most seats then won 60% of the seats in parliaments,
With the rest shared equally among small Ps,

The way socialists were beaten up by the police in this new regime,
Which stopped them campaigning,
And the P, also gained some right wing, voters, as well as fixing the election,
The fascist P, militia had been given official status in 1923,
Even after killing loads,

The upper house, saw new senators appointed & became a appointed fascist majority,
The 1924 election saw 60% of voters vote fascist, most of those being unreal votes,
With massive fraud in the S of Italy, & police chiefs unsettling the election for them,
And also left wingers promised they would be beaten up if they voted,
The claims by the far right were a good beating never hurt anybody,
& 50000 guns in an election is better than 5million votes,

They also beat up opponents, & used the media, in very biased, ways,
Using the fact of their takeover, to have a political honeymoon,
Fermented by getting rich people, supporting their pro them acts,
And the monarchy handing it support,
And the fact they had a small amount of votes before,

Many politicians had been forced to side with the P, or face punishments,
It is felt without all this,
Of course they would have lost the election, & not been the regime,
And the only reason why they were in this position, was as they were dictators,
As all regime's get honeymoons,
Even the most extreme Pres, of America gets his public to support him,

So if they get power everybody gives them a chance and begin s to accept their leader,
Opposition brews, up, but at the same time, people just accept what their leaders want,
As we just do, that is us,
They may have won in the 20s, as the new rightist P, without the bullying,
But likely, they would not have formed the regime,
Especially as media was seeing itself restricted, and beaten

If they had not had any power, then they would have probably got low singles,
With the socialists winning a majority, and Maybe creating a republic,

It was rightist libs that had helped impose new censorship, in the early 1920s,
Totally ending the free press, in 1925,
Like making all journalists have to be in the regime P,
It was not 1926 that all opposition Ps, were banned,
So in no way was this a democratic takeover,
It was slow dictatorial takeover, supported by the monarchy, & some in the army,

They smother unions,
Corrupt fascists/business chiefs act freely,
Leading the committees, with very pliant unions,
The regime, ends women's votes,
And then fixed elections end,

It becomes a tyrannical laughing stock,
Media tricks, are used to see evil's global propaganda coup,
15 nobles farm a mil acres in 39, so it is doing very terrible, with very little land reform,
Even though every so often it promised this,
& has big inequality & no land reform,
Compared to say Spain or France,

The state of Italy, experiencing suppression,
It jails, or horribly tortures, smacks to bits in fights,
Like they used to across the era, pour a kind of oil into people's mouths,
And the people would then be violently sick for weeks, with some dying,

With also some beating, and going around beating up socialists,
And making people confess to lies,
Low 1000s for political repression, in peacetime, in 1923-39, were jailed, tortured or beat,
Far more than say, Britain or France, for the equivalent period,

With many restricted from the best jobs, as they are not in the main p,
With all elected officials replaced by late 20s, even locals,
With newspapers seized by people, & others,
Some books were banned,

It is felt high 10s, of people died in political violence from 1925-39,
With possibly as many as 10 executed or massacred by the regime,
Most of the deaths being by Anarchist assassins, and Slovenians nats,
And some dying when being evicted, or in torture,
Higher again than France or Britain,
Outside of undemocratic Ulster, which it is more than too,

For instance allowing S farms to stay rich owed,
And the fascists,
Just joined the elite, not leftists but anti-Communist & anti-SD,
& anti union, claiming that is all the same belief at times,
With around half being massacred by the state, of that 1925-39 number,
The year had been declared year one, when they tookover,
It did not crush tghe mafaia they saw lots of kills in Sicvily but it stayed, and in a sense the ruling party were a mafia, And it could have easily been as peaceful & democratic as them, France & Britain,
It had no real divide,
Except a bigoted far right police & establishment, & rich company leaders,
Anti Jewish laws in the late 30, signed by the monarchy,
In it's only big act of politics in the era,

Saw some numbers kill themselves,
So distraught at being fired from the army, & such,
And laws forbid Jews from certain things,
Showing that this state which opposed democracy, had joined the far right,

Also Ethiopians were banned from marrying Italians,
Also over 10,000 political dissidents were exiled to different parts around Italy, by late 38,
With added to that above 1000s number of jailed, & tortured,
100s jailed, for years, for political views,

OK here is my controversial view,
My view is that building projects like draining marshes for more land,
& self sufficiency killed, 1000, & moterways,
And say that 25,000 died of virtual famines, in the S,
Of higher food costs, among the poor,

I mean it's LE did not increase much, so that would explain that,
Caused by increases in polio, & TB, while other lands saw them fall,
And also say that 50,000 people were turned, into sharecroppers, from 1925-45,
Purely as of laws, from this farm policy of banning many from moving to cities,

Lets say they were not free by socialist policy changes,
That they just stopped being serfs as of abolition of this policy,
That does not include those freed by socialists & CDs in later years,
Mid 10s, of thousands of Italians,

Were asked & sent to colonise Greek isles,
& Libya in the 30s, where they passed big eared desert foxes,
After a while, they ended up like many regimes, just showing they were evil,
Not just wrong, but showing their whole idea was wrong, and hypocritical,

Libya saw its population fall in 1900s too 1945 for locals in a way that made it in asense the worst genocidal population fall of the C, but over a long, time, there were camps, etc, also Ethiiopia too, the monarcvhy did not oppose but supported these, things,

Also in the late 19th C

Italian colonies bring imported cows, to Ethiopia,
Which brings cow's depletion rinderpest,
Which sees cattle die, & so collapse of many tribes,
It then encourages the 88-92 awful day famine, in Ethiiopia,
1/3 of the overworked population, 3-5million die,
Partly of diseases aswell, aswell as no food,
With smallpox, & diseases like cholera up a bit,

Whose monarch's scheme, parliamentary backed,
Pinocchio, style was imposing fraudulent annexation treaties,
That figure was invented in Italy, with his growing nose when he lied & such,
Indeed it was that leaders position calling on the empire,

The disease sperread down Africa nad killed 10% of the population of Botswana via Cow deaths and famine, and killed many across Africa. all as of Italin kings wantinmg to aquire land, like Belgium's King in Congo

The turbulence that followed the devastations of World War I, inspired by the Russian Revolution, led to turmoil and anarchy. The liberal establishment, fearing a socialist revolution, started to endorse the small National Fascist Party, led by Benito Mussolini. In October 1922 the fascists attempted a coup (the "Marcia su Roma", i.e. March on Rome); but the king ordered the army not to intervene, instead forming an alliance with Mussolini. Over the next few years, Mussolini banned all political parties and curtailed personal liberties thus forming a dictatorship. In 1935, Mussolini subjugated Ethiopia after a surprisingly lengthy campaign. This resulted in international alienation and the exodus of the country from the League of nations. A first pact with Nazi Germany was concluded in 1936, and a second in 1938. Italy strongly supported Franco in the Spanish civil war and Hitler's annexation of Austria and Czechoslovakia.

On 7 April 1939 Italy occupied Albania, a de facto protectorate for decades and entered World War II in 1940 taking part in the late stages of the Battle of France. Mussolini wanting a quick and swift victory which would emulate Hitler's blitzkrieg in Poland and France, invaded Greece in October 1940 via Albania but was forced to a humiliating defeat after a few months. At the same time Italy after initially conquering British Somalia, saw an allied counter-attack leading to the loss of all possessions in the Horn of Africa. Italy was also defeated by British forces in North Africa and was only saved by the urgently dispatched German Africa Corps led by Erwin Rommel. Italy was invaded by Allies in June 1943 leading to the collapse of the fascist regime and the arrest of Mussolini. In September 1943, Italy surrendered. Immediately Germany invaded its former ally with the country becoming a battlefield for the rest of the war. The country was liberated on 25 April 1945.

The Italian Republic (1946-)

Main article: History of the Italian Republic

Aldo Moro, during his kidnapping by the Red Brigades.
Aldo Moro, during his kidnapping by the Red Brigades.

In 1946 Vittorio Emanuele III's son, Umberto II, was forced to abdicate. Italy became a Republic after a referendum held on 2 June 1946, a day celebrated since as Republic Day. This was the first election in Italy allowing women to vote.[15] The Republican Constitution was approved and came into force on 1 January 1948. Under the Paris Peace Treaties of 1947, the eastern border area was lost to Yugoslavia and the free territory of Trieste was divided between the two states. The Marshall Plan in 1949 helped to revive the Italian economy which in 1950s and 1960s enjoyed a prolonged economic growth. Italy is a founding member of European Union (EU). In the 1970s and 1980s the country experienced the Years of Lead, a period characterised by widespread social conflicts and terrorist acts carried out by extra-parliamentary movements. The assassination of the leader of the Christian Democracy , Aldo Moro, led to the end of a historic compromise between the DC and the Communist Party.

From 1992 to 1997, the Italian economy faced significant challenges with massive government debt, extensive corruption, and organized crime's considerable influence collectively called the political system Tangentopoli. The Tangentopoli scandals involved all major parties, and between 1992 and 1994 the DC underwent a severe crisis splitting up into several factions, including the Italian People's Party and the Christian Democratic Center. The Italian Socialist Party (PSI) completely dissolved. The 1994 elections put media magnate Silvio Berlusconi into the Prime Minister's seat. However he was forced to step down in December when Lega Nord withdrew its support. In April 1996, national elections led to the victory of a centre-left coalition under the leadership of Romano Prodi. Prodi's first government became the third-longest to stay in power before he narrowly lost a vote of confidence, by three votes, in October 1998. A new government was formed by Massimo D'Alema, but in April 2000 he resigned. In 2001 the centre-right formed government and Silvio Berlusconi was able to remain in power for a complete five year mandate, but with two different governments. The first one (2001–2005) became the longest government in post-war Italy. Italy participated in the US-led military coalition in Iraq. The elections in 2006 won by centre-left, allowed Prodi to form his second government but in early 2008, he resigned because of the collapse of his coalition. In the ensuing new early elections in April 2008, Silvio Berlusconi convincingly won to form a government for the third time.

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