Matteo Renzi is an Italian politician who served as prime minister of Italy from 2014 to 2016.
110 Facts About Matteo Renzi
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Matteo Renzi has been a senator for Florence since 2018.
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Matteo Renzi resigned as secretary of the PD following defeat in the 2018 Italian general election.
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In January 2021, Matteo Renzi revoked his party's support to the Conte II Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, which brought down the government and resulted in the 2021 Italian government crisis.
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In February 2021, Matteo Renzi's IV supported Prime Minister Mario Draghi's national unity government.
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Matteo Renzi has been described as a centrist and as a liberal by political observers.
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Matteo Renzi was born on 11 January 1975 in Florence, the second of four children.
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Matteo Renzi's father Tiziano Renzi was a small business owner and Christian Democracy municipal councillor in Rignano sull'Arno.
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Matteo Renzi grew up in an observant Catholic family in Rignano sull'Arno.
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In 1999, Matteo Renzi graduated in law from the University of Florence with a thesis on Giorgio La Pira, the former DC mayor of Florence.
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Matteo Renzi then went on to work for CHIL Srl, a marketing company focusing on leafleting owned by his family, co-ordinating the sales service of La Nazione.
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Matteo Renzi was one of the founders of the committee in support of Romano Prodi's candidature as Prime Minister of Italy in the 1996 Italian general election; that same year, Renzi joined the centrist Italian People's Party, and became its provincial secretary in 1999.
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Matteo Renzi married Agnese Landini, with whom he later had three children.
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In 2001, Matteo Renzi joined Francesco Rutelli's Daisy party, composed by members of the disbanded PPI.
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Matteo Renzi was the youngest person to become president of an Italian province.
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In October 2011, Matteo Renzi organised a second public meeting, in Florence, where he wrote down one hundred topics of discussion.
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In September 2012, Matteo Renzi announced that he would seek to lead the centre-left coalition in the 2013 Italian general election; the other four candidates for that position were Pier Luigi Bersani, the PD secretary, Nichi Vendola, leader of Left Ecology Freedom, Laura Puppato, a PD deputy from Veneto and Bruno Tabacci, leader of the Democratic Centre.
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Matteo Renzi's candidacy was criticised by some prominent PD members and to the party's left, among them Rosy Bindi, Massimo D'Alema, Stefano Fassina, and Vendola.
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Matteo Renzi's impressive resume at such a young age, in combination with his reputation as a political outsider thanks to his "Scrapper" moniker, made him very electable in comparison.
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Matteo Renzi became the new PD secretary and the centre-left coalition's prospective candidate for Prime Minister of Italy.
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When comparing it with the 2012 centre-left primary election, Matteo Renzi moved to the left and his electorate was not much different from that of the party's average primary.
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Matteo Renzi's victory was welcomed by Prime Minister Letta, who had been the vice-secretary of the party under Bersani's leadership.
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Many said that Matteo Renzi was pressuring Letta to resign in his favour, arguing that he should be given the right to become Prime Minister, as he was the PD's leader.
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Matteo Renzi subsequently called a meeting of the PD leadership for the following evening.
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Just before the meeting took place, Matteo Renzi publicly called on Letta to resign and allow him to form a new government.
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Matteo Renzi's cabinet became Italy's youngest government to date, with an average age of 47.
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Matteo Renzi's rise to become the PD's secretary and eventual Prime Minister was seen as a sign of much-needed generational change; at the time he took office, Renzi enjoyed by far the highest approval rating of any politician in the country.
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On 4 December 2016, after the failure of the referendum he proposed, Matteo Renzi announced his resignation.
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On 12 March 2014, the Matteo Renzi Cabinet issued a law-decree on fixed-term contracts, called the Poletti Decree, from the name of the Labour Minister Giuliano Poletti, as well as a bill proposing major reforms to the Italian labour market called the Jobs Act.
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In March 2014, the Matteo Renzi Cabinet approved the auctioning of a large number of luxury cars that were used to transport heads of state, including nine Maseratis, two Jaguar Cars, and various other cars such as BMWs and Alfa Romeos.
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Matteo Renzi subsequently appointed women to the majority of new positions, making it the first time any woman had served as a chief executive of a state-owned company in Italy.
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The government announced the abolition of IRAP, a regional tax on production activities; discussing the 2016 Finance Bill, Matteo Renzi further promised to cancel IRPEF, IMU, and TASI, respectively taxes on individuals, public services, and residence, which was a flagship policy of the centre-right former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, and its tax-cutting 2016 budget was passed on 22 December despite concerns from the European Commission.
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In January 2016, Matteo Renzi highlighted an additional 500,000 jobs that he said had been created through his policies.
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In October 2016, the Matteo Renzi government's proposed 2017 Finance Bill, an expansionary budget including deficit raising to cope with the earthquake and migrants emergencies, was seen as an increasing anti-Brussels rhetoric, having warned of disaster if it was rejected.
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The Italian institutional framework had remained essentially unchanged since 1 January 1948, when the Constitution of Italy first came into force after being enacted by the Constituent Assembly of Italy on 22 December 1947, and Matteo Renzi argued changes were necessary to make governments more stable; the system was created as a result of the Italian Fascist regime and to avoid such a repeat.
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Matteo Renzi and his government argued that the constitutional reform was long sought by the PCI and the political left; political scientist Nadia Urbinati commented that this was an oversimplification and that it was the political right that has attacked bicameralism, arguing that the reform had more in common with that of Lega Nord's Francesco Speroni in 1994.
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Matteo Renzi was criticised by many within the PD's left-wing minority for the deal with Berlusconi, as well as by the M5S of Grillo, who said the Nazareno Pact was the proof that there are no differences between the Italian centre-left and centre-right.
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On 4 December, the reform was rejected in the 2016 Italian constitutional referendum and Matteo Renzi resigned as a result.
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In November 2014, Matteo Renzi ordered the Italian-run rescue option Operation Mare Nostrum to be replaced by Frontex's Operation Triton due to the refusal of several EU governments to fund it.
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Matteo Renzi, returning to Rome from a political event in Mantua for the 2015 Italian regional elections, held an emergency meeting with ministers and spoke by telephone to French president Francois Hollande, Maltese prime minister Joseph Muscat, and Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras.
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Shortly before becoming Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi stated that he favoured the introduction of civil unions for same-sex couples.
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Matteo Renzi stated that the bill's passage through the Senate was a "victory for love", although he expressed disappointment that the stepchild provision was not adopted, and raised the possibility of introducing it in a separate bill at a later date.
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Matteo Renzi said hosting the games would be "irresponsible" and would only cause the city to fall into further debt.
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On 1 September, Matteo Renzi appointed Vasco Errani, the former president of Emilia-Romagna who had been already a Special Commissioner during the 2012 Emilia earthquake, as Special Commissioner for Reconstruction.
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Matteo Renzi formed a close relationship with US president Barack Obama, supporting the 2014 military intervention against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant with hundreds of Italian troops and four Panavia Tornado aircraft, and supporting international sanctions during the Ukrainian crisis after the 2014 Russian military intervention in Ukraine.
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Matteo Renzi forged a positive relationship with Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, who praised the economic policies of the Matteo Renzi government.
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Matteo Renzi is seen as an ally of French president Francois Hollande of the Socialist Party.
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On 15 March 2014, Matteo Renzi met Hollande in Paris, agreeing with him a common economic policy focused not only on the austerity measures imposed by the so-called European troika of the European Commission, European Central Bank, and International Monetary Fund but on more flexible policies to promote economic growth in the European Union.
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Matteo Renzi is a close personal friend of French prime minister Manuel Valls, with the two leaders often regarded as being heirs of the Third Way politics espoused by the likes of Tony Blair.
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On 7 January 2015, after the Charlie Hebdo shooting in Paris which caused the death of 17 people, Matteo Renzi expressed horror and dismay, offering his best wishes to the people of France, noting his close relationships with the French prime minister and Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo.
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Matteo Renzi built a constructive relationship with the British prime minister David Cameron of the Conservative Party.
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On 3 February 2015, Matteo Renzi received the newly elected Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras of SYRIZA in Rome.
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Tsipras, who was notable for refusing to ever wear a tie, thanked Matteo Renzi and said he would wear the gift in celebration after Greece had successfully renegotiated the austerity measures.
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Similar to his predecessors, Matteo Renzi continued the long-standing Italian policy of a close relationship with the United States, building a partnership with President Barack Obama.
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Matteo Renzi met Obama for the first time on 24 March 2014 during the latter's trip to Rome.
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Matteo Renzi held a joint meeting with Obama, Pope Francis, and Italian president Giorgio Napolitano.
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Obama stated afterwards that he had been impressed by the reforms Matteo Renzi wanted to undertake.
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Matteo Renzi himself said that he considered Obama an example of the policies he wanted to achieve.
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Matteo Renzi later spoke at Stanford University as the guest of university president John L Hennessy.
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Matteo Renzi was received at the White House in April 2015.
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Matteo Renzi built up a close relationship with Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe; the two Prime Ministers were both against austerity and seeking to reform the constitutions of their countries.
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On 6 June 2014, Matteo Renzi received Prime Minister Abe in Rome.
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In doing so, Matteo Renzi became the first Italian prime minister to officially visit Vietnam since 1973, when diplomacy first began between Italy and North Vietnam.
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On 4 March 2014, Matteo Renzi travelled to Tunisia, where he had a meeting with Mustapha Ben Jafar.
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On 18 March 2015, after the Bardo National Museum attack in Tunis, in which 28 people died and four of whom were Italians, Matteo Renzi condemned the terrorist attack and said that Italy is close to the Tunisian government and people.
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Matteo Renzi signed economic pacts to create investments by the Italian government-owned oil company Eni in the African country for US$50 billion.
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Matteo Renzi later met with Angolan president Jose Eduardo dos Santos in Luanda.
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In January 2016, Matteo Renzi continued his policy toward Africa; he had a three-day trip to Nigeria, Ghana, and Senegal.
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The main tasks of this diplomatic trip were the fight against the Islamic terrorism and the European migrant crisis in the Mediterranean Sea; with Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari, Matteo Renzi signed an agreement on enhancing co-operation between the Nigerian Police and the Italian Police.
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Matteo Renzi has been one of the strongest supporters of Libyan prime minister Fayez al-Sarraj and of his government of national union.
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Matteo Renzi phoned Putin on 28 August, asking him to stop the "intolerable escalation" and to reach a peace agreement with Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko to stop the 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine in that regions.
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On 5 March 2015, Matteo Renzi met President Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow.
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Ahead of the bilateral meeting, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi visited and laid flowers at the Moscow bridge, near the Kremlin, on which the Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was murdered a few days before.
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Matteo Renzi stated that Italy would support the Egyptian truce proposal, with the two leaders calling for an immediate cease-fire and the beginning of peace negotiations.
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In making the visit, Matteo Renzi became the first Western world leader to visit President el-Sisi since 2014 Egyptian presidential election.
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On 15 January 2015, after the Islamic State's conquests in Libya, Matteo Renzi conducted a long phone call with Sisi, to discuss the terrorist threat in the Mediterranean.
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On 20 August 2014, Matteo Renzi travelled to Iraq in the midst of the insurgency led by the Islamic State.
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Matteo Renzi met with President Fuad Masum, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, and his immediate predecessor Nouri al-Maliki.
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Matteo Renzi later told an American journalist that what he witnessed during his trip to Iraq reminded him of the images of the Srebrenica massacre that had horrified him as a child.
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On 8 January 2015, Matteo Renzi made his first official trip of the year, meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi to address issues of foreign and economic policy, including the Alitalia-Etihad Airways deal.
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Matteo Renzi was the first leader to visit Israel after the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the deal reached between P5+1 and Iran.
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In January 2016, Matteo Renzi met with Iranian president Hassan Rouhani in Rome, the first visit to Italy by a President of Iran since 1999.
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In Iran, Matteo Renzi met both President Rouhani and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
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Matteo Renzi visited the European Southern Observatory of Paranal in the Atacama desert.
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In February 2016, Matteo Renzi met Argentine president Mauricio Macri during a state visit to Buenos Aires; Matteo Renzi became the first European leader to meet Macri after the 2015 Argentine general election and the first Italian prime minister since Romano Prodi in 1998 to visit Argentina.
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In February 2017, Matteo Renzi resigned as secretary, only to be re-elected in the 2017 PD leadership election in April.
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In September 2019, Matteo Renzi left the PD to found the liberal party Italia Viva.
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Matteo Renzi announced an electoral ticket with the Agriculture Minister Maurizio Martina, who became deputy secretary.
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Matteo Renzi attacked European bureaucrats and proposed a primary election to appoint the PES candidate for the European Commission presidency and the direct election of the European president.
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Matteo Renzi was seen by many political analysts and journalists as the real kingmaker of the new parliamentary majority.
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Matteo Renzi called for radical changes to the government's economic recovery plans after the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy and demanded that Conte cede his mandate over the secret services coordination task.
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Matteo Renzi was instrumental in getting Mario Draghi as Prime Minister, with IV supporting Draghi's vote of confidence for a national unity government.
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Matteo Renzi was able to secure his chosen candidate's election by unexpectedly securing last-minute support from the conservative New Centre-Right, the socialist Left Ecology Freedom, and the liberal Civic Choice.
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Matteo Renzi led a centre-left coalition composed by the Democratic Party, the liberal More Europe of Emma Bonino, the centrist Popular Civic List of Beatrice Lorenzin, and the progressive Together of Giulio Santagata.
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The nature of Matteo Renzi's progressivism is a matter of debate and has been linked both to liberalism and populism.
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Matteo Renzi has occasionally been compared to former British prime minister Tony Blair for his political views.
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Matteo Renzi himself has previously cited Blair as an inspiration for him, and said to be a supporter of Blair's ideology of the Third Way, which attempts to synthesise liberal economics and left-wing social policies.
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Matteo Renzi endorsed the Hillary Clinton 2016 presidential campaign in an interview where he expressed admiration for the policies of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
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Matteo Renzi is in favour of the recognition of civil unions for same-sex couples and stepchild adoptions, a situation which occurs when at least one parent has children from a previous relationship that are not genetically related to the other parent.
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Matteo Renzi participated in the first Family Day in 2007, while he was president of Florence province and a member of the centrist The Daisy party.
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Matteo Renzi was sometimes described as the de facto leader of the centre-left Party of European Socialists, in opposition to the centre-right European People's Party associated with Angela Merkel; the two leaders were together often referred to as Merkenzi.
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In 2014, Matteo Renzi was ranked as the third most influential person in the world under 40 in the 40 Under 40 list by Fortune, and in the FP Top 100 Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy.
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Matteo Renzi's use of social networks was a contributing factor to his victory in the 2013 PD leadership election.
104.
Matteo Renzi has stated that he is a fan of the American TV series House of Cards; some journalists, including the book's author Michael Dobbs and Enrico Letta, noted similarities between the rise to power of the character Francis Underwood, played by Kevin Spacey, and the manner in which Matteo Renzi replaced Letta as Prime Minister in 2014.
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In October 2016, Matteo Renzi stated to have stopped watching the TV series after its second season.
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In December 2018, Matteo Renzi presented a TV series called Firenze secondo me, broadcast by Nove TV channel.
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In February 2022, the Florence Prosecutors' office requested a trial of eleven suspects, among them Matteo Renzi, for alleged funding irregularities related to Matteo Renzi's Open Foundation.
108.
In 1999, Matteo Renzi married Agnese Landini, a teacher, with whom he has three children: two sons, Francesco and Emanuele, and a daughter, Ester.
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The Matteo Renzi family are regular Mass-goers and are active in the Association of Italian Catholic Guides and Scouts, the largest Scouting association in Italy.
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Matteo Renzi is an avid football fan and supports ACF Fiorentina, the team of his hometown Florence.