Matteo Renzi

Matteo Renzi (born 11 January 1975) is an Italian politician who served as prime minister of Italy from 2014 to 2016.

Renzi was born on 11 January 1975 in Florence, the second of four children.

His father Tiziano Renzi was a small business owner and Christian Democracy (DC) municipal councillor in Rignano sull'Arno.

Renzi grew up in an observant Catholic family in Rignano sull'Arno.

He studied in Florence at the classical lyceum (liceo classico) Dante Alighieri, where he passed his final exam with the grade of 60/60 but was nearly expelled because, as the students' representative, he refused to withdraw a school newspaper in which there was criticism of a maths teacher.

During this time, he was a Scout in the Association of Catholic Guides and Scouts of Italy.

In 1994, he participated as a competitor for five consecutive episodes in the television program La Ruota Della Fortuna (a localised version of the United States game show Wheel of Fortune) hosted by Mike Bongiorno, winning Lit.48 million.

Renzi's interest in politics began in high school.

He 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 (PPI), and became its provincial secretary in 1999.

He also married Agnese Landini, with whom he later had three children.

In 1999, Renzi graduated in law from the University of Florence with a thesis on Giorgio La Pira, the former DC mayor of Florence.

He 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.

During this time, Renzi was also an association football referee at amateur level and a futsal player.

In 2001, Renzi joined Francesco Rutelli's Daisy party, composed by members of the disbanded PPI.

After serving as the president of the province of Florence from 2004 to 2009 and the mayor of Florence from 2009 to 2014, Renzi was elected secretary of the PD in 2013, becoming Prime Minister the following year.

At the age of 39 years, Renzi, who was at the time the youngest leader in the G7 and also the first-serving mayor to become Prime Minister, became the youngest person to have served as Prime Minister.

While in power, Renzi's government implemented numerous reforms, including changes to the Italian electoral law, a relaxation of labour and employment laws with the intention of boosting economic growth, a thorough reformation of the public administration, the simplification of civil trials, the introduction of same-sex civil unions, and the abolition of many small taxes.

On 13 June 2004, Renzi was elected president of the province of Florence with 59% of the vote, as the candidate of the centre-left coalition.

He was the youngest person to become president of an Italian province.

In the years as president of Florence province, Renzi expressed his ideas against "the political caste" and during his mandate reduced taxes and decreased the number of the province's employees and managers.

After five years as the president of Florence province, Renzi announced that he would seek election as the mayor of Florence.

On 9 June 2009, Renzi, by now a member of the Democratic Party (PD), won the election on a second round vote with 60% of the votes, compared to 40% for his opponent Giovanni Galli.

As the mayor, he halved the number of city councillors, installed 500 free WiFi access points across the city, reduced kindergarten waiting lists by 90%, and increased spending on social welfare programs and schools.

One year after being sworn in as mayor and with his popularity in national opinion polls increasing, Renzi organised a public meeting with another young party administrator Debora Serracchiani at Leopolda Station in Florence to discuss Italian politics, after stating that a complete change was also necessary in his party.

Other prominent PD members who aligned themselves with Renzi's programme were Matteo Richetti, president of the Regional Council of Emilia-Romagna, Davide Faraone, a regional councillor from the Sicilian Regional Assembly, and Giuseppe Civati, a prominent member of the PD in Lombardy and a member of the Regional Council of Lombardy.

Following this public meeting in August 2010, the Italian media gave Renzi the nickname il rottamatore ("The Scrapper" or "The Wrecker").

In October 2011, Renzi organised a second public meeting, also in Florence, where he wrote down one hundred topics of discussion.

During this time, he began to be strongly criticised by other members of his party closer to then-PD secretary Pier Luigi Bersani, after his suggestion that Italian politicians of the same generation as then-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi should retire.

In September 2012, 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.

His 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.

After the first round of the 2012 Italian centre-left primary election, Renzi gained 35.5% of the vote, finishing second behind Bersani and qualifying for the second ballot.

Renzi eventually gained a total of 39% of the vote, against Bersani's 61%.

After the rejection of his constitutional reform in the 2016 Italian constitutional referendum, Renzi formally resigned as Prime Minister on 12 December; his Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni was appointed his replacement.

He has been a senator for Florence since 2018.

He resigned as secretary of the PD following defeat in the 2018 Italian general election.

Renzi has served as the leader of Italia Viva (IV) since 2019, having been the secretary of the Democratic Party (PD) from 2013 to 2018, with a brief interruption in 2017.

In September 2019, he left the PD and founded the Italia Viva party.

In January 2021, 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.

In February 2021, Renzi's IV supported Prime Minister Mario Draghi's national unity government.

Renzi has been described as a centrist and as a liberal by political observers.