Matteo Renzi

In August 2019, Deputy Prime Minister and League's leader, Matteo Salvini, announced a motion of no confidence against Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, after growing tensions within the majority. Many political analysts believe the no confidence motion was an attempt to force early elections to improve Lega's standing in Parliament, ensuring Salvini could become the next Prime Minister. On 20 August, following the parliamentary debate at the Senate, in which Conte harshly accused Salvini of being a political opportunist who "had triggered the political crisis only to serve his personal interest" and stated "this government ends here", the Prime Minister resigned his post to President Mattarella.

Despite having always opposed it in the past, in August 2019, Renzi strongly advocated the formation of a new government between the PD and the populist Five Star Movement. After days of tensions within the Democratic Party, on 28 August Nicola Zingaretti, the new PD's leader, announced his favorable position regarding a new government with the M5S, with Giuseppe Conte at its head. On same day, Mattarella summoned Conte to the Quirinal Palace for the 29 August to give him the task of forming a new cabinet. Renzi was seen by many political analysts and journalists as the real kingmaker of the new parliamentary majority.

The 2018 Italian general election was held on 4 March 2018 after the Italian Parliament was dissolved by President Sergio Mattarella on 28 December 2017.

In December 2018, Renzi presented a TV Series called Firenze secondo me ("Florence according to me"), broadcast by Nove TV Channel. It is a historical and artistic documentary, in which Renzi presents the city of Florence, narrating historical events and showing the most famous sites of cultural interest, like Palazzo Vecchio, the Uffizi Gallery, the Vasari Corridor, the Basilica of Santa Croce, Palazzo Pitti and the Boboli Gardens.

On 19 February 2017, during the PD National Assembly, Renzi resigned as Secretary of the party, announcing his candidacy for the next leadership election. A few days before he launched the movement In Cammino ("On the way") in support of his candidacy.

On 4 December 2016, after the failure of the referendum he proposed, announced his resignation. On 7 December 2016, Renzi officially handed over the resignation to the President Sergio Mattarella.

On 4 December 2016, the reform was rejected in a constitutional referendum.

Following months of public and parliamentary debate, on 25 February 2016 the Senate voted in favour of Renzi's proposals to legalise civil unions, with 173 votes in favour and 71 against. An amendment known as the "stepchild adoption" provision that would have granted parental rights to a non-biological parent in a same-sex union was taken out of the bill at the last moment after it became clear a majority of senators did not support it. Although Renzi had expressed support for the amendment, the decision came after the Five Star Movement backed out of an agreement to pass it; moreover, the amendment was opposed by the New Centre-Right. Renzi stated that the bill's passage through the Senate was a "victory for love", although he expressed disappointment that the adoption provision was not also adopted, and raised the possibility of introducing it in a separate bill at a later date. On 11 May 2016, the Chamber of Deputies approved the final proposals, with 369 votes in favour and 163 against.

On 15 December, during a ceremony at the Italian National Olympic Committee, Renzi officially launched the candidacy of Rome for the 2024 Summer Olympics. Renzi stated that, "Our country too often seems hesitant. It's unacceptable not to try or to renounce playing the game. Sport in Italy is a way of life and a way of looking at the future. I don’t know if we’ll make it, but the Olympic candidacy is one of the most beautiful things we can do for our kids, for us, for Italy." On 21 September 2016, Mayor of Rome Virginia Raggi, a member of the Five Star Movement, told reporters the bid for the games would go no further. Raggi, having long been opposed to Rome hosting the games, cited ongoing financial troubles in the country as the main reason for cancelling the bid. She said hosting the games would be "irresponsible" and would only cause the city to fall into further debt.

At 03:36 CEST on 24 August 2016, an earthquake measuring 6.2 on the moment magnitude scale struck Central Italy. The epicentre was close to Accumoli, in an area near the borders of the Umbria, Lazio, Abruzzo and Marche regions. The earthquake killed 298 people and left more than 4,500 homeless.

On 18 October 2016, President Obama invited Renzi and his wife Agnese to attend an official state dinner at the White House. The two men held a joint press conference during which Obama, the dinner being his final state visit as president, commented that he had "saved the best for last", and the two reiterated their support for one another.

In January 2016, Renzi continued his policy toward Africa; the Prime Minister had a three-days trip in Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal. The main tasks of this diplomatic trip was the fight against the Islamic terrorism and the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean Sea; with Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, Renzi signed an agreement on enhancing co-operation between the Nigerian and Italian Polices.

Renzi has been one of the strongest supporters of the new Libyan Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj and of his government of national union. In August 2016 the newspaper la Repubblica reported that dozens of Italian special forces were operating in Libya, for training and intelligence activities. These special forces were operating under the direct command of the Prime Minister's office.

The relations between Italy and Egypt dramatically worsened after the murder of Giulio Regeni, an Italian Cambridge University graduate student killed in Cairo following his abduction on 25 January 2016. Giulio Regeni was a PhD student at Girton College, Cambridge, researching Egypt's independent trade unions.

In January 2016, Renzi met with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in Rome, the first visit to Italy by a President of Iran since 1999. The two leaders signed business deals worth up to 17 billion euros. They also discussed the war against the Islamic State in the Middle East and Libya. On 13 and 14 April 2016 he became the first Western leader to visit Iran after the international agreement on the nuclear program of Iran. In Iran, Renzi met both President Rouhani and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

In February 2016 Renzi met Argentine President Mauricio Macri during a state visit to Buenos Aires; Renzi became the first European leader to met Macri after the 2015 presidential election and the first Italian Prime Minister since Romano Prodi in 1998 to visit Argentina. During his premiership, Renzi has also developed close relationship with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto.

After constitutional reforms had passed both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate multiple times, Renzi announced that he would hold a constitutional referendum on 4 December 2016 to seek approval for the changes; whilst the reform was approved by a simple majority of the Parliament, it did not achieve the two-thirds necessary to avoid a referendum, as per Article 138 of the Italian Constitution.

The Telegraph referred to Renzi as "a prominent centrist voice in Europe". Renzi has occasionally been compared to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair for his political views. Renzi himself has previously cited Blair as an inspiration for him, and claims to be a supporter of Blair's ideology of the Third Way, which attempts to synthesise liberal economics and left-wing social policies. In an interview with the Italian talk show, Che tempo che fa, Renzi stated that his meeting with Bill and Hillary Clinton was the most interesting part of his trip to the United States, because he considered them as models of the progressive left-wing. In 2016, Renzi endorsed Hillary Clinton's campaign to be elected President of the United States, in an interview where he also expressed admiration for the policies of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

On 7 February 2015, after just under a year in power, five senators and two deputies from the Civic Choice defected to the Democratic Party, citing the leadership of Renzi as Prime Minister as the primary reason for their decision to change parties.

On 20 March 2015, Prime Minister Renzi briefly became ad interim Minister of Infrastructure and Transport following the resignation of Maurizio Lupi, due to a corruption scandal involving public works on infrastructure in which his name had been cited several times. Renzi held the office on an unofficial basis until 2 April, when Graziano Delrio was appointed as the new Minister.

In February 2015, with the economy continuing to stagnate, the Government announced a plan to abolish rules that limit cooperative lenders' shareholders to one vote each at shareholder meetings regardless of the size of their holdings. The European Commission subsequently forecast that the Italian economy would begin to grow by the spring. The Government also announced the abolition of IRAP, a regional tax on production activities and, discussing the 2016 Finance Bill, Renzi further promised to cancel IRPEF, IMU and TASI, taxes on individuals, public services and residences. In May 2015 the economy recorded growth of 0.3%, finally ending the Italian triple-dip recession. In January 2016, Renzi highlighted an additional 500,000 jobs that he claimed had been created through his policies.

Renzi was harshly criticised by many within the Democratic Party's left-wing minority for the deal with Berlusconi, as well as by the Five Star Movement of Beppe Grillo who said the Nazareno Pact was the proof that there are no differences between the Italian centre-left and centre-right. Despite concern from some within the Democratic Party, the Italicum was given final approval by the Italian Senate on 27 January 2015, thanks to support from Forza Italia Senators.

On 28 April 2015, concerned that the reform may not pass, Renzi announced he would hold a confidence vote to approve the electoral reform changes. The Five Star Movement, Forza Italia and some left-wing Democratic Party members strongly opposed this decision, with some seeking to draw comparisons between Renzi and Benito Mussolini. It would be only the third time that an electoral law was twinned with a confidence vote, after Mussolini's Acerbo law and Alcide De Gasperi's "Scam law". On 4 May the Chamber of Deputies finally approved Renzi's flagship electoral changes with 334 votes for and 61 votes against, the latter including a faction of the PD. The reforms took full effect in July 2016.

Having easily passed the Chamber of Deputies on 11 March 2015, in a first stage, the reforms to the Italian Senate that would see its power greatly diminished and membership drastically changed were finally passed by the Senate on 13 October 2015. The vote was won by 176 votes to 16, with a large number of senators abstaining from the vote in protest at having to vote on abolishing many of their own powers. The last vote was held on 12 April 2016, when the Chamber finally approved the reform with 361 votes while all the oppositions abandoned the house.

On 19 April 2015, a huge shipwreck took place in the Mediterranean Sea, causing the death of more than 700 migrants from North Africa. Renzi, returning to Rome from a political event in Mantua for the regional elections, held an emergency meeting with ministers and spoke by telephone to French President François Hollande and Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat. The call led to an emergency meeting of European interior ministers to address the problem of migrant deaths. In a speech addressing immigration, the Italian Prime Minister condemned human trafficking as a "new slave trade".

From January to April 2015, about 1,600 migrants died on the route from Libya to Lampedusa, making it the deadliest migrant route in the world.

On 10 June 2015, the Chamber of Deputies passed a motion obliging the Government to approve a bill regarding civil unions between same-sex couples. Previously all of the major parties in Italy had presented different motions on civil unions, which were all rejected except for the Democratic Party's, which also called for civil unions to be approved. Renzi had stated shortly before becoming Prime Minister that he favoured the introduction of civil unions for same-sex couples. In July 2015, several days after the European Parliament passed a motion calling on all members of the European Union to recognise same-sex relationships, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Italy was violating the Convention on Human Rights by not recognising same-sex couples' "right to family life".

On 7 October 2015, Renzi introduced a bill to Parliament that would establish same-sex civil unions and gender-neutral cohabitation agreements. The bill passed its first reading in the Senate a week later. Although Renzi secured the support of his Democratic Party and the main opposition Forza Italia party, many MPs from both criticised the bill. Despite the bill being put forward on a free vote, Renzi made it clear that he would tie the civil unions bill to a vote of confidence in his Government if it did not pass.

The opening of the Expo on 1 May 2015 was met with protest from anti-austerity activists, black bloc, and anarchists caused criminal damage, resulting in the police using tear gas.

On 3 February 2015, Renzi received newly elected Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras of the Coalition of the Radical Left in Rome. The two leaders held a joint press conference expressing concerns about austerity measures imposed by the European Commission and stated that economic growth is the only way to solve the crisis. After the press conference, Renzi presented Tsipras with an Italian tie as a gift. Tsipras, who was notable for refusing to ever wear a tie, thanked Renzi and said he would wear the gift in celebration after Greece had successfully renegotiated the austerity measures.

Renzi was received at the White House in April 2015. He and President Obama discussed many issues, including Ukraine, Libya and ISIL. They discussed Europe's economy, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, climate change and energy security. In October 2015, the Italian Government announced that it would prolong its military presence in Afghanistan along with the US Army, in order to continue its security mission and prevent the rise of Islamist forces such as Al-Qaeda and ISIL.

On 11 June, Renzi met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, who congratulated him for the "important reforms" being undertaken by his government. Xi also stated that China would continue co-operation with Italy ahead of Expo 2015 in Milan. Several months later in October, Renzi met with Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang in Rome to sign twenty treaties worth a total of 8 billion euros.

On 18 March 2015, after the Bardo Museum attack in Tunis, in which 28 people died and four of whom were Italians, Renzi condemned the terrorist attack and said that Italy is close to the Tunisian government and people.

On 5 March 2015, Renzi met President Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow. The talks between the leaders was focused on international issues, such as settlement of the crisis in Ukraine, the situations in the Middle East and in Libya, as well as fighting terrorism. Putin guaranteed Russian support in case of a UN intervention in Libya against the Islamic State.

Through 2015, Renzi became one of the main supporters of a reduction of international sanctions against Russia and the establishment of a political and military alliance between the Western countries and Russia against the terrorism of the Islamic State.

On 11 July 2015, a car bomb exploded outside the Italian consulate in Cairo, resulting in at least one death and four injured. ISIS claimed responsibility.

On 8 January 2015, 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 deal. The two leaders discussed joint co-operation domains and enhancing trade exchange and co-operation in energy and aerospace.

Renzi has had good relations with both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. On 21 and 22 July 2015 he visited first Jerusalem, where he met with Netanyahu and addressed the Knesset, and then Ramallah, where he met with Abbas. Renzi was the first leader to visit Israel after the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the deal reached between international community and Iran. Whereas Netanyahu heavily criticised the deal, Renzi supported it, while stressing that "Israel's security is the security of Europe and mine as well."

After announcing an increase of Italian investment in Central and South America, in October 2015 Renzi undertook a number of official trips across the continent, travelling to Chile, Peru and Colombia. During his visit to Santiago, Renzi and Chilean President Michelle Bachelet launched a large number of renewable energy projects promoted by the Italian multinational Enel. Renzi also visited the European Southern Observatory of Paranal in the Atacama desert. During these trips, Renzi had numerous meetings with communities of Italian-born Latin Americans in these countries.

In a surprise visit, returning from Latin America, on 28 October 2015 Renzi became the first Italian Prime Minister in history to make a state visit to Cuba. In doing so he also became the first G7 leader to meet Cuban President Raúl Castro following the 2015 normalisation of relations between the United States and Cuba.

Giorgio Napolitano announced his immediate retirement as President of Italy on 14 January 2015. Napolitano had been convinced to stand again as president following the political uncertainty generated by the 2013 general election, but had made it clear he would retire at some point before June 2015. On 29 January, during the National Assembly of the Democratic Party, Renzi officially announced that he would endorse Sergio Mattarella, a judge on the Constitutional Court and a former Minister of Defence, as his candidate for the Italian presidential election to replace Napolitano.

Throughout January and February 2014 there were multiple reports of persistent leadership tensions between Renzi and Prime Minister Letta. Many claimed that Renzi was pressuring Letta to resign in his favour, arguing that as he was now the leader of the Democratic Party he should be given the right to become Prime Minister. On 12 February, Letta acknowledged these rumours for the first time, publicly demanded that Renzi make his position clear. Renzi subsequently called a meeting of the Democratic Party leadership for the following evening. Just before the meeting took place, Renzi publicly called on Letta to resign and allow him to form a new government. Letta initially resisted the demand, but following a vote in favour of Renzi's proposal during the meeting, which Letta did not attend, he announced that he would tender his resignation as Prime Minister on 14 February.

Under Renzi's leadership, the Democratic Party officially joined the Party of European Socialists (PES) as a full-time member on 28 February 2014.

On 17 January 2014, while on air at Le invasioni barbariche on La7 TV channel, interviewed about the tensions between him and the Prime Minister Enrico Letta, Renzi tweeted #enricostaisereno ("Enrico don't worry") to reassure his party colleague that he was not plotting anything against him.

However, at a meeting on 13 February 2014 the Democratic Party leadership voted heavily in favour of Renzi's call for "a new government, a new phase and a radical programme of reform". Minutes after the Party backed the Renzi proposal by 136 votes to 16, with two abstentions, Palazzo Chigi – the official residence of the Prime Minister – announced that Letta would travel to the Quirinale the following day to tender his resignation to President Giorgio Napolitano.

Upon becoming Prime Minister, Renzi said that "long-overdue" labour market reform would be at the top of his agenda to improve the state of the Italian economy. On 12 March 2014, the 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. A reduction in the tax burden of about €80 was announced for those earning less than €1,500 per month. On 30 April Renzi, together with the Minister for the Public Administration Marianna Madia, presented the guidelines for the reform of the Public Administration, subsequently approved by the Cabinet on 13 June.

In March 2014 the Cabinet approved the auctioning of a large number of luxury cars that were used to transport heads of state, including nine Maseratis, two Jaguars, and various other cars such as BMWs and Alfa Romeos. Out of the 1,500 cars put up for sale, 170 sold immediately over eBay. In April, as part of his wider industrial reforms, Renzi forced the chief executives of Italy's biggest state-owned companies, including Eni, Terna, Finmeccanica, Enel and Poste Italiane, to resign, citing a lack of public confidence in their leadership. He 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.

In 2014, his cabinet introduced the so-called "Renzi bonus", a monthly allowance of €80, recognized to holders of a total annual income not exceeding €24,600. The bonus, whose aim was to relaunch expenditures, was heavily criticised by opposition, which labeled it as an "electoral baksheesh" for the 2014 European election.

On 11 March 2014, the Chamber of Deputies approved both the plans to overhaul the Senate and the second stage of Renzi's constitutional reforms, a flagship electoral reform law that would see Italy's voting system overhauled. On 26 March, despite objections raised by several parties in the coalition, the Government won a vote in the Senate on the bill reforming the provinces, with 160 voting in favour and 133 against. On 6 May, the Constitutional Affairs Committee of the Senate approved the Government's bill on the reform of the Senate. Due to the ambitious reforms that provided for the abolition of Senate, a new electoral law and an increase in the powers of the Prime Minister, Renzi was accused by politicians and constitutionalists like Stefano Rodotà or Fausto Bertinotti of being an authoritarian and anti-democratic leader.

In April 2014, Renzi proposed that Italy adopt what he called the Italicum voting system, a proportional representation system with a majority bonus for the party which obtained over 40% of the vote, in order to provide for stable and long-term government. To approve the new electoral law, which was opposed by the Five Star Movement and a minority of his own Democratic Party, Renzi gained the support of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who was still the leader of Forza Italia, despite having been expelled from the Senate due to his sentence for tax evasion. The alliance between Renzi and Berlusconi was named the Nazareno Pact, from the name of the street in Rome where the headquarters of the Democratic Party are located, where the two leaders met for the first time to discuss the reform.

As a result of the Libyan and Syrian Civil Wars, a major problem faced by Renzi upon becoming Prime Minister in 2014 was the high levels of illegal immigration to Italy. 2014 saw an increase in the number of migrants rescued at sea being brought to southern Italian ports, with the increase in the number of migrants prompting criticism of Renzi by the anti-immigration Lega Nord, the Five Star Movement and Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party. On 8 August 2014, the Cabinet approved a law-decree providing for the international protection of migrants. In November 2014, 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.

In 2014, 170,100 migrants arrived in Italy by sea, a 296% increase compared to 2013. 141,484 of the travellers ferried over from Libya. Most of the migrants had come from Syria, Eritrea and various countries in West Africa.

On 3 September 2014 during a press conference, Renzi announced an online consultation with students, teachers and citizens ahead of the major school reforms promoted by Education Minister Stefania Giannini. On 9 July 2015, despite the opposition of an overwhelming majority of teachers and students alike to the actual design of the school reform, this was finally approved by the Chamber of Deputies, with 277 votes against 173.

Renzi formed a close relationship with US President Barack Obama, supporting the 2014 military intervention against IS with hundreds of Italian troops and four Panavia Tornado aircraft, and also supporting international sanctions against Russia after their invasion of East Ukraine. Renzi forged a positive relationship with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe, who praised the economic policies of the Renzi Government. A key ally of Renzi in the Mediterranean is Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi; the two leaders held many bilateral meetings where they discussed the problem of immigration to Italy and the increasing tensions in the Middle East and North Africa.

Following the 2014 European Parliament elections, which saw the Democratic Party receive the highest number of votes of all the individual political parties contesting that election across the entire European Union, Renzi subsequently emerged as the most prominent leader of the European Socialists. This was in opposition to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, widely considered the de facto leader of the European People's Party and, according to some European Union analysts, the two leaders are together referred to as Merkenzi. Renzi and Merkel had many bilateral meetings, the first on 17 March 2014 in Berlin, just a few weeks after Renzi's election as Prime Minister, where the two leaders discussed important reforms that the Italian Government planned to make both in Italy and in the EU. On 22 January 2015, Merkel visited Renzi in his home city of Florence, where she publicly lauded the "impressive" reforms carried out by his government. On the following day the two leaders held a joint press conference in front of Michelangelo's David.

Renzi is seen as an ally of French President François Hollande of the Socialist Party. On 15 March 2014 Renzi met Hollande in Paris, agreeing with him a common economic policy focused not only on the austerity measures imposed by the so-called Troika of the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund, but also on more flexible policies to promote economic growth in the EU. 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. On 7 January 2015, after the Islamic terrorist attack in Paris which caused the death of 17 people, Renzi expressed horror and dismay, offering his best wishes to the people of France and noting his close relationships with the French Prime Minister and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo. On 11 January, he joined more than 40 world leaders and three million people in the Republican March organised by President Hollande.

Renzi built a constructive relationship with British Prime Minister David Cameron of the Conservative Party. During their first meeting on 1 April 2014, Cameron stated that the reforms planned by Renzi were "ambitious" and that together the two men would be able to change the European Union. On the same day, Renzi also met former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whom Renzi had previously called a political inspiration to him. On 2 October 2014, Renzi held a press conference with Cameron in 10 Downing Street, with Cameron lauding their similar policies to reform the European Union and overcome the economic crisis.

On 1 August 2014, following his party's strong showing in the European Parliament elections, Renzi nominated his Foreign Minister, Federica Mogherini, as a candidate to be the new High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy in the incoming-European Commission to be led by Jean-Claude Juncker, the former Prime Minister of Luxembourg. Mogherini was eventually successfully confirmed as the EU High Representative, ensuring that Italy controlled one of the two most senior posts in the Commission.

In September, Renzi participated in the 2014 NATO Summit in Wales. Before the official start of the summit, he had discussions with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, US President Barack Obama and the other three leaders of the European G4 to discuss the crisis with Russia. This summit was the first held after the Russian military intervention in Ukraine and the offensive by the Islamic State of the Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Renzi met Obama for the first time on 24 March 2014, during the latter's trip to Rome. Renzi also held a joint meeting with Obama, Pope Francis and Italian President Giorgio Napolitano. Obama stated afterwards that he had been impressed by the reforms Renzi wanted to undertake. Renzi himself said that he considered Obama an example for the policies he wanted to achieve.

Renzi built up a close relations with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe; the two Prime Ministers are both against austerity and they are reforming the constitutions of their countries. On 6 June 2014, Renzi received Prime Minister Abe in Rome. Abe publicly congratulated Renzi for the economic and constitutional reforms being delivered by Renzi's government. The two leaders also met in Tokyo in August 2015 and discussed about relations with China and the stability of East Asia.

Russia had previously enjoyed a privileged relationship with Italy, particularly under the leadership of Silvio Berlusconi, who was a personal friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Following the Russian military intervention in Ukraine, however, relations worsened. On 2 March 2014, Renzi accused Putin of having committed "an unacceptable violation". On 19 March, during a speech to the Chamber of Deputies, Renzi stated that the Crimean status referendum was illegal and that the G8 countries must start co-operating to solve the crisis and prevent a return to the Cold War. In June, he subsequently participated in the G7 summit in Brussels, the first one held after the suspension of Russia from the G8 following the annexation of Crimea in March.

Renzi questioned Nord Stream II, a new Russia-Germany natural gas pipeline, saying: "I found it surprising that the South Stream project was blocked [Balkan pipeline was cancelled by Russia in December 2014 following obstacles from EU], while now we are discussing a doubling up of Nord Stream".

On 2 August 2014, Renzi met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Cairo, holding talks about a variety of issues, including the Israel-Gaza conflict. 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. In making the visit, Renzi became the first Western leader to visit President el-Sisi since his election. On 15 January 2015, after Islamic State's conquests in Libya, Renzi conducted a long phone call with Sisi, to discuss the terrorist threat in the Mediterranean. The two leaders agreed that the next steps should be political and diplomatic efforts through the United Nations.

On 20 August 2014 Renzi travelled to Iraq, in the midst of the insurgency led by the Islamic State. There he met with the Head of State, Fuad Masum, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and his immediate predecessor Nouri al-Maliki. On the same day, 20 August 2014, Renzi travelled north to Erbil to meet the President of Iraqi Kurdistan, Mas'ud Barzani, and Prime Minister Nechervan Barzani. 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. While Renzi was in Iraq, the Italian Parliament approved a proposal to arm the Peshmerga soldiers fighting against the Islamic State.

In the European Parliament election held on 25 May 2014, the first national election Renzi had faced since becoming Prime Minister, his Democratic Party won 40.8% of the vote with 11,203,231 votes, becoming by far the largest party in the country with 31 MEPs. The PD won the most votes of any single party across the whole of the European Union, won the largest number of MEPs for any single party, and became the largest group in the Socialists and Democrats European Parliament group.

According to public opinion surveys in May 2014, just after the European election, Renzi's approval rating was 74%, the highest ever rating for an Italian politician serving as Prime Minister (the highest absolute consensus, 84% was recorded in November 2011 by Professor Mario Monti, who presided over a technical, bipartisan government). His lowest approval in office was in June 2015, with just over 35%, however upon leaving the office of Prime Minister, his approval rating shrank, arriving to 15% in 2020.

In 2014, Renzi was ranked as the third most influential person under 40 in the world by the American magazine Fortune, and in the Top 100 Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy.

Renzi has stated that he is a fan of the American TV series House of Cards; some journalists had noted similarities between the rise to power of the character Francis Underwood, played by Kevin Spacey, and the manner in which Renzi replaced Enrico Letta as Prime Minister in 2014. This comparison surfaced in the media again when, in June 2015, a phone conversation from January 2014 between Renzi and a general of the Finance Guard, Michele Adinolfi, was leaked to the newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano. During the conversation, Renzi described Letta as "incapable" and told Adinolfi that he would replace him as Prime Minister, which would happen less than a month later.

At the 2014 local elections, his sister Benedetta was elected a municipal councillor for the Democratic Party in Castenaso, a small town near Bologna. Renzi's father, Tiziano, was the city secretary of the Democratic Party for Rignano sull'Arno, near Florence, until March 2017; he was previously a municipal councillor for the Christian Democrats from 1985 to 1990.

During the subsequent campaign in the 2013 election in March, Renzi backed Bersani by organising large public rallies in his support in Florence, but come the election the Democratic Party only gained 25.5% of the vote, despite opinion polls placing the party at almost 30%. In April, during the elections for the President of the Republic, Renzi caused a minor controversy by openly criticising the candidacies of both Franco Marini and Anna Finocchiaro, two long-standing members of his Democratic Party.

Following the resignation of Pier Luigi Bersani in April 2013, Renzi announced that he would stand for the position of Secretary of the Democratic Party. The PD's loss of seats led to party members' doubts concerning Bersani's leadership abilities. Renzi's impressive resume at such a young age, in combination with his reputation as a political outsider thanks to his "scrapping", made him very electable in comparison. He was supported by a number of his former political opponents, such as former Party Secretaries Walter Veltroni and Dario Franceschini, Deputy Marina Sereni, MEP David Sassoli and Turin Mayor Piero Fassino. Other supporters of his included Deputies like Gianni Dal Moro, Francesco Sanna, Francesco Boccia, Lorenzo Basso and Enrico Borghi, all of whom were considered close to the newly elected Prime Minister Enrico Letta.

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 pro-Russian conflict in that regions. Renzi and Putin also had a bilateral meeting on 16 October, when Renzi hosted the Asia–Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Milan with 53 other leaders of the world. On 15 November, during the G-20 summit in Brisbane, the two leaders had another meeting, where they discussed about the Ukrainian crisis, but also on the civil wars in Libya and Syria.

Both as Prime Minister and Mayor of Florence, Renzi has been renowned as an assiduous user of social networks, especially Twitter where he is followed by more than two million people. Renzi cited his use of social networks as a contributing factor to his victory in the Democratic Party leadership election in 2013.

On 1 September, Renzi appointed the former President of Emilia-Romagna Vasco Errani as Special Commissioner for Reconstruction. Errani had been already a Special Commissioner during the earthquake that struck his home region in 2012.

Following this public meeting, the Italian media gave Renzi the nickname "il Rottamatore", or "The Scrapper". In 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 the then-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 general election; the other four candidates for that position were Pier Luigi Bersani, Secretary of the Democratic Party, Nichi Vendola, Leader of the Left Ecology Freedom, Laura Puppato, a Democratic Deputy from Veneto and Bruno Tabacci, Leader of the Democratic Centre. After the first round of the December 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 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, won the election on a second round vote with 60% of the votes, compared to 40% for his opponent Giovanni Galli. As 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.

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. For this Renzi was criticised by the participants of the "Family Day", an anti-LGBT rights demonstration which took place three times in Italy; the Prime Minister was accused of having changed his opinion about the recognition of same-sex couples. 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.

President of Florence Province (2004–09) Mayor of Florence (2009–14) Prime Minister of Italy (2014–16) Democratic Party Secretary (2013–17; 2017–18) Leader of Italia Viva (2019–)

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 Democratic Party, holding this role from 2013 to 2018, with a brief interruption in 2017. He resigned as Party Secretary following defeat in the 2018 election. In September 2019, he left the PD, founding Italia Viva, his own liberal movement.

In 2001, he joined Francesco Rutelli's The Daisy party, composed by members of the disbanded People's Party. On 13 June 2004 he was elected President of Florence Province 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 the Province, Renzi expressed his ideas against the "political caste", and during his mandate he reduced taxes and decreased the number of the Province's employees and managers.

In 1999, he graduated from the University of Florence with a degree in law, with a thesis on Giorgio La Pira, the former Christian Democratic Mayor of Florence. He then went on to work for CHIL Srl, a marketing company owned by his family, co-ordinating the sales service of the newspaper La Nazione. During this time Renzi was also a football referee at amateur level and a futsal player. In 1994, he participated as a competitor for five consecutive episodes in the television program La Ruota Della Fortuna (a localised version of the U.S. game show Wheel of Fortune) hosted by Mike Bongiorno, winning 48 million lire.

In 1999 Renzi married Agnese Landini, a teacher, with whom he has three children: two sons, Francesco and Emanuele, and a daughter, Ester. The Renzi family are regular Mass-goers and are active in the Association of Italian Catholic Guides and Scouts, the largest scouting association in Italy.

Renzi's interest in politics began in high school. In 1996 he was one of the founders of the committee in support of Romano Prodi's candidature as Prime Minister in the general election; that same year he joined the centrist Italian People's Party, and became its Provincial Secretary in 1999. In the same year he married Agnese Landini, with whom he later had three children.

After the rejection of the constitutional reform, the Parliament had to change the electoral law proposed by Renzi's government; in fact the so-called Italicum regulates only the election of the Chamber of Deputies, and not the one of the Senate, which, if the reform passed, would be indirectly elected by citizens. After the re-election as Secretary, Renzi proposed a new electoral law called Mattarellum bis, better known as Rosatellum, from the name of his main proponent Ettore Rosato, Democratic leader in the Chamber of Deputies. This electoral law was similar to the one which was applied in Italy from 1993 to 2004.

A third large, shallow earthquake of USGS preliminary magnitude 6.6 struck 6 km (4 mi) north of Norcia at 07:40 local time (06:40 UTC) on 30 October. This quake was the largest in Italy in 36 years, since the 1980 Irpinia earthquake. The three earthquakes caused almost 100,000 homeless.

Matteo Renzi (Italian pronunciation: [matˈtɛːo ˈrɛntsi] ; born 11 January 1975) is an Italian politician who served as the Prime Minister of Italy from February 2014 until December 2016. He has been an Italian Senator for Florence since 2018.

Renzi was born in 1975 in Florence, Tuscany, the second of four children. His father, Tiziano Renzi, was a small business owner and Christian Democratic municipal councillor in Rignano sull'Arno. Renzi grew up in an observant Catholic family in Rignano sull'Arno, then studied in Florence at the Classical Lyceum 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 harsh criticism of a maths teacher. During this time he was a Scout in the Association of Catholic Guides and Scouts of Italy (AGESCI).

On 9 June, Renzi travelled to Hanoi, Vietnam to meet with President Trương Tấn Sang and Prime Minister Nguyễn Tấn Dũng, as well as Communist Party General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng to sign economic treaties worth around 5 billion US dollars to the Italian economy. In doing so, Renzi became the first Italian Prime Minister to officially visit Vietnam since 1973, when diplomacy first began between Italy and North Vietnam. During the visit Renzi placed a wreath in the mausoleum of the former North Vietnamese President Ho Chi Minh.

The Democratic Party's vote share was the best result for an Italian party in a nationwide election since the 1958 general election, when the Christian Democracy won 42.4% of the vote. The positive electoral result enabled Renzi to successfully nominate his Foreign Minister, Federica Mogherini, as the new High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, ensuring that an Italian would occupy one of the EU's two most powerful political positions.

Upon becoming Prime Minister, Renzi stated that one of his most important tasks was to achieve constitutional reforms. The Italian institutional framework had remained essentially unchanged since 1 January 1948, when the Italian Constitution first came into force after being enacted by the Constituent Assembly on 22 December 1947.

On 23 September, during the 69th General Assembly of the United Nations, Renzi held a bilateral meeting with the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, at which they discussed climate change and increasing tensions in the Middle East. On 11 December Renzi travelled to Ankarafor a second meeting with Erdoğan, during which Renzi expressed his support for Turkish accession to the European Union. On the same day he met with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu.

At the age of 39 years and 42 days upon assuming office, Renzi is the youngest person to have served as Italian Prime Minister (52 days younger than Benito Mussolini, who took office in 1922) and was at the time the youngest leader in the G7. He was also the first serving Mayor to become Prime Minister. Renzi was sometimes described as the de facto leader of the Party of European Socialists, in opposition to the European People's Party associated with Angela Merkel; the two leaders were together often referred to as Merkenzi. In 2014, the American magazine Fortune ranked Renzi as the third most influential person under 40 in the world, and Foreign Policy listed him as one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers. Moreover, Renzi is nicknamed il Rottamatore (the Scrapper) due to his ambition of renovating the Italian political establishment. After the rejection of his constitutional reform in the December 2016 referendum, Renzi formally resigned as Prime Minister on 12 December; his Foreign Minister, Paolo Gentiloni, was appointed his replacement.