Lamberto Dini CGMG (born 1 March 1931) is an Italian politician and economist. He was the Director General of Bank of Italy from 1979 to 1994, Minister of Treasury from 1994 to 1996, the 51st Prime Minister of Italy from 1995 to 1996, and Foreign Minister from 1996 to 2001. Early life and career After studying Economics in his native city of Florence, Dini took up a post at the International Monetary Fund in 1959, where he worked his way up until he served as Executive Director for Italy, Greece, Portugal and Malta between 1976 and 1979. Then, in October 1979, he moved to the Banca d'Italia, where he served as an executive until May 1994. When the Governor of the Bank of Italy, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, with whom Dini had developed a rivalry, was called upon to serve as Prime Minister in April 1993, Dini was widely tipped to succeed him, but was passed over (allegedly on Ciampi's instigation) in favour of Antonio Fazio. Dini made a comeback when Silvio Berlusconi formed the Berlusconi I Cabinet in May 1994, in which Dini served as Treasury Minister. Due to a split between Berlusconi and his coalition partner Umberto Bossi, the Lega Nord leader, Berlusconi's government collapsed in December 1994, after a mere seven months in power. In January 1995, Dini was appointed as Prime Minister by President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro. Dini also took the portfolio for treasury in the cabinet and was a non-elected prime minister and minister. Though he was not noted as a left-winger, he was given the confidence vote of the left-wing parties (apart from the Communist Refoundation Party) and by Lega Nord, whereas his erstwhile partners in the right-wing government chose to abstain whilst citing benevolence. His cabinet was a technocratic one. The Olive Tree In April 1996, a general election was called, in which Berlusconi's House of Freedoms coalition, minus the Lega Nord, was pitted against that of Romano Prodi, The Olive Tree. Relations between Dini and Berlusconi had seriously soured by then, and Dini chose to join The Olive Tree with his own centrist party, Italian Renewal. Dini was elected to the Italian Chamber of Deputies, and served for the entire term as Minister of Foreign Affairs in four successive centre-left governments, under Prodi, Massimo D'Alema in two separate, successive cabinets, and finally Giuliano Amato. His party has merged into The Daisy, a larger