Massimo D’Alema is an Italian politician and journalist born in Rome on 20 April 1949.
The son of Giuseppe D’Alema, a communist partisan and long-serving parliamentarian, and Fabiola Modesti, he grew up in a family deeply immersed in the culture and activities of the Italian Communist Party.
He studied philosophy at the University of Pisa after earning a classical high school diploma and began his political engagement early, joining the Italian Young Communists’ Federation in 1963.
Over the decades he emerged as one of the leading figures of the Italian centre-left, serving as Prime Minister from 1998 to 2000 and later as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2006 to 2008.
Siblings
Massimo has one sibling, a younger brother named Marco.
While Massimo was born in Rome, Marco was born in Venice, a difference that reflected the frequent moves the family made because of their father’s work as a Communist Party official.
The brothers shared a childhood shaped by the party’s world of pioneers’ groups, political discussions and successive residences in cities such as Genoa.
In later years they jointly managed family property, including a small holding in Montefalco, Umbria, which they eventually decided to sell after their father’s death.
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Career
D’Alema’s political path began in the youth organisation of the Italian Communist Party, which he led as national secretary of the Federazione Giovanile Comunista Italiana from 1975 to 1980.
He later served as regional secretary of the party in Apulia and joined the national secretariat in 1986.
Between 1988 and 1990 he was editor-in-chief of the party newspaper L’Unità.
Elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1987, he played an active role in the transformation of the Communist Party into the Democratic Party of the Left in 1991 and became the party’s general secretary in 1994.
In October 1998, following the fall of Romano Prodi’s first government, he formed a new centre-left cabinet and became the first former Communist to serve as Prime Minister of a NATO country.
His government lasted until April 2000.
After a period in opposition he returned to high office in 2006 as Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister in Prodi’s second cabinet, remaining in those posts until 2008.
He continued to influence the evolution of the Italian left through the Democrats of the Left, the Democratic Party and later Articolo Uno, while also holding European roles such as membership of the European Parliament and the presidency of the Foundation for European Progressive Studies.
Accolades
D’Alema has received several high national and international honours in recognition of his political and diplomatic service.
France awarded him the rank of Officer of the Legion of Honour.
Chile conferred on him the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit, while the Holy See named him a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Pope Pius IX.
Austria granted him the Grand Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic, and he has also received supreme distinctions from Palestine and South Korea.
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