Labour reform

Upon becoming Prime Minister, Renzi said that labour market reform, which was thought to be "long overdue",^[106] and was opposed by major trade unions and organised labour,^[107] to introduce labour market flexibility, would be at the top of his agenda to improve the state of the Italian economy.^{[108][109][110]} On 12 March 2014, the Renzi Cabinet issued a law-decree on fixed-term contracts, called the Poletti Decree, from the name of the Labour Minister Giuliano Poletti,^{[111][112][113]} as well as a bill proposing major reforms to the Italian labour market called the Jobs Act.^[114][115] A reduction in the tax burden of about €80 was announced for those earning less than €1,500 per month.^[116] On 30 April, Renzi and Marianna Madia, the Minister for the Public Administration, presented the guidelines for the reform of the public administration,^[117] which was approved by the Renzi Cabinet on 13 June,^[118][119] before becoming law on 7 August.^[120]

Trade union protesters demonstrate near the Colosseum against Renzi's labour market reforms

In September 2014, the government sought approval for the Jobs Act, which provided for, among other things, the abolition of Article 18 of the Workers' Statute, which protected workers from unjustified dismissal.^[121] The proposal was criticised by organised labour, especially the largest trade union, the Italian General Confederation of Labour (CGIL), and its leaders Susanna Camusso and Maurizio Landini.^[122] Moreover, the left wing of the Democratic Party (PD), by then led by Renzi's rival and former PD secretary Pier Luigi Bersani, criticised the government for the reform, threatening to vote against it.^[123][124]

On 29 September, the National Committee of the PD voted to support the Jobs Act, despite the disagreements within the party, with 130 votes in favour, 20 against, and 11 abstaining.^[125] On 9 October, the Senate voted to approve the Jobs Act, and the landmark reform passed with 165 votes in favour to 111 against, marking the first step for the most ambitious economic legislation of the eight-month-old government. Before the vote, Labour Minister Poletti was forced to cut his speech short due to the loud protests of the Five Star Movement (M5S) and Lega Nord (Lega) oppositions, some of whom threw coins and papers.^[126] German chancellor Angela Merkel, who was visiting Milan and had been among the most vocal politicians regarding Italy's need for speedy economic reforms, said the labour law marked an "important step" to reduce "employment barriers" in the eurozone's third-largest economy.^[127]

On 25 October, almost one million people took part in a mass protest in Rome, organised by the CGIL in opposition to the labour reforms of the government. Some high-profile members of the left-wing faction of the PD, including Gianni Cuperlo, Stefano Fassina, and Giuseppe Civati, also participated in the protest.^[128] On 8 November, more than 100,000 public employees protested in Rome in a demonstration organised by the three largest trade unions in the country, the CGIL, the CISL, and the UIL.^[129] On 25 November, the Chamber of Deputies approved the Jobs Act with 316 votes; the M5S, Lega, and almost forty members of the PD abstained from the vote to protest against the reform.^[130] On 3 December, the Senate gave the final approval it needed to become law.^[131]

In January 2017, the Jobs Act was taken to the Constitutional Court of Italy;^[132] Renzi and his supporters said that the law was necessary for job creation and to attract investors, while its critics responded that it diminished workers' rights without generating new jobs. The court rejected a petition, which received 3.3. million signatures, for a referendum to be held about the Job Acts.^[133] In September 2018, the Jobs Acts was partially repealed after the same court declared the compensation rules for claims of unlawful dismissal to be unconstitutional,^{[134][135][136]} on the grounds that these rules were not in line with the principles of "reasonableness and equality" and conflicted with the concept of "protection of work" as granted by Articles 4 and 35.^[137] In July 2020, the court accepted the questions raised from the tribunals of Bari and Rome about the same matter, ruling the compensation rules to be in violation of the constitutional principles of equality, reasonableness, and job protection;^[138] it was the first time that a ruling was signed by three women.^[139]

Economic policies

Renzi speaking at Ca' Foscari University in Venice

In March 2014, the 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. Out of the 1,500 cars put up for sale, 170 sold immediately over eBay.^[140] 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.^[141] In April 2014, Renzi's cabinet introduced the so-called "Renzi bonus", a monthly allowance of €80, recognised to holders of a total annual income not exceeding €24,600.^[142] The bonus, whose aim was to relaunch expenditures, was heavily criticised by the opposition, which labelled it as an "electoral baksheesh" for the 2014 European Parliament election.^[143]

On 1 August, Renzi launched a law decree called Unblock Italy, which was intended to facilitate the implementation of major projects, civil works, and infrastructure that were suspended at the time, and achieve further administrative simplification.^[144] The centre of this was the Millegiorni,^[145] or the Thousand Days Programme.^[146][147] On 1 September, Renzi launched the website passodopopasso.italia.it,^[148] which allowed citizens to monitor the progress of the Millegiorni.^[149] On 9 October, Renzi presented his first Finance Bill (Legge di Stabilità),^[150] which was approved by the European Commission on 28 October.^[151] A €36 billion bill, it included the largest tax cuts in a year (€18 billion), as well as tax evasion fight, plus the €80 bonus; it was criticised by trade unions like the CGIL, the CISL, and FIOM, while the UIL was more positive and Confindustria supported it.^[152][153]

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.^[154] The government also announced the abolition of IRAP, a regional tax on production activities; discussing the 2016 Finance Bill, Renzi further promised to cancel IRPEF, IMU, and TASI, respectively taxes on individuals, public services, and residence,^[155][156] 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.^[157] Additionally, Renzi raised the threshold for cash payments three times with the intention to boost the economy, promising that it would not help tax evasion, and described it as "a simple, fair, and liberal measure" that "simplifies" and "encourages consumption". In 2018, Minister of Economy and Finance Pier Carlo Padoan admitted that it was a mistake. A 2021 study by Bankitalia/Palazzo Koch concluded that the decision "increased the share of the illegal economy by 0.5 percentage points" and "a 1% increase in the use of cash leads to growth between 0.8% and 1.8%" of the black economy.^{[158][159][160]}

In May 2015, the economy recorded growth of 0.3%, finally ending the Italian triple-dip recession.^[161] In January 2016, Renzi highlighted an additional 500,000 jobs that he said had been created through his policies.^[162] In October 2016, the 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. In an interview with la Repubblica on 23 October, Padoan said: "Europe must choose which side to take. They can accept the fact that our deficit goes up from 2% to 2.3% (of gross domestic product) to tackle the earthquake and the migrant emergencies. Or they can choose the Hungarian way, which puts up walls against the migrants and must be rejected. That would be the beginning of the end." On 24 October, defending the budget law, Renzi said: "We want to address the needs of Italian citizens, not Brussels technocracy."^[163]

Constitutional and electoral reforms

Renzi with President Giorgio Napolitano

Upon becoming Prime Minister, Renzi stated that one of his most important tasks was to achieve constitutional reforms; by April 2014, Renzi's government presented a constitutional bill of government initiative.^[164][165] 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,^[166][167] and 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. The Italian Communist Party (PCI) pushed for unicameralism under proportional representation, being wary of unicameralism under majoritarian representation to avoid a tyranny of the majority and like part of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) seeing the Senate as a synonym of privilege and prospering in the Fascist regime's shadows, while the Christian Democracy (DC) party advocated bicameralism through a division of powers to avoid one-party hegemony. The Action Party, the DC, the Italian Republican Party, and part of the socialists won out over the PCI and dissident socialists, especially about the Senate.^[168] The actually-existing system was not the intended result of the assembly, which came about through later political choices and conditions.^[169]

The first stage of Renzi's reform package aimed to abolish the so-called "perfect bicameralism", which gave identical powers to the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Republic; the reforms would substantially decrease the membership and power of the Senate. Constitutional reforms were in the air since April 2013, when then-President Giorgio Napolitano instituted a committee for reform to avoid the repeat of inconclusive legislative elections, as it had happened two months earlier.^[170] Under the reforms, the Senate's power to force the resignation of the government by refusing to grant a vote of confidence would be removed; only a few types of bills, including the constitutional bills, constitutional amendments, laws regarding local interests, referendums, and the protection of linguistic minorities, would need to be passed by the Senate. In addition, the Senate could only propose amendments to bills in some cases, with the Chamber of Deputies always having the final word, and the membership of the Senate would be changed, with regional representatives appointed in a manner virtually identical to the Bundesrat of Germany.^[171][172] 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.^[173] On 26 March, despite objections raised by several parties in the coalition, it won a vote in the Senate on the bill reforming the provinces, with 160 voting in favour and 133 against.^[174]

On 6 May, the Constitutional Affairs Committee of the Senate approved the government's bill on the Senate's reform.^[175] Due to the ambitious reforms that provided for the Senate abolition, which would have led to, in the words of Valentino Larcinese, "a shift towards a de facto quasi-presidential system embedded in de jure parliamentary institutions",^[176] and an increase in the powers of the Prime Minister, plus a new electoral law, Renzi was accused by constitutionalists and politicians, among them Stefano Rodotà^[177] and Fausto Bertinotti,^[178][179] of being an authoritarian and anti-democratic leader.^{[180][181][182]} Critics like the centre-left populist Five Star Movement (M5S) and its founder Beppe Grillo argued that the reforms would give too much power to the Prime Minister; the former centre-right prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, who has been controversial, argued the changes would "lead us straight toward a non-democracy." The Economist argued that the reforms would result in corrupted politicians being appointed in the Senate.^[183] 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.^[184]

Renzi inspecting troops with President Sergio Mattarella

In April 2014, Renzi proposed that Italy adopt what he called Italicum, a proportional representation voting 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 M5S and a minority of the PD, Renzi gained the support of Berlusconi, who was still the leader of Forza Italia (FI), 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 PD is located, where the two leaders met for the first time to discuss the reform.^[185] The alliance, which included a secret clause stating that Berlusconi's rival and long-time centre-left leader Romano Prodi, a founder of the PD, would not become the president of the Italian Republic, fell apart and was called off by FI, in part due to the election of PD-backed, centre-left candidate Sergio Mattarella in the 2015 Italian presidential election.^{[186][187][188]}

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.^[189] Despite concern from some within the PD, Italicum was given final approval by the Senate on 27 January 2015 thanks to support from FI senators.^[190]

On 28 April, concerned that the reform may not pass, Renzi announced he would hold a confidence vote to approve the electoral reform changes. The M5S, FI, and some left-wing PD members opposed this decision, with some seeking to draw comparisons between Renzi and Benito Mussolini.^[191] It would be only the third time that an electoral law was twinned with a confidence vote after Mussolini's Acerbo law and the DC prime minister Alcide De Gasperi's "scam law".^[192] On 4 May, the Chamber of Deputies approved Renzi's flagship electoral changes with 334 votes for and 61 votes against, the latter including a faction of the PD.^[193][194] The reform took full effect in July 2016;^[195] however, it was found to be partially unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court of Italy in January 2017,^[196] and was then repealed and replaced by the Italian electoral law of 2017 (Rosatellum).^[197]

In a September 2015 interview in New York,^[198] Renzi said he did not need Berlusconi's votes for the reform, which he described as "a revolution", to pass.^[199] Having passed the Chamber of Deputies on 11 March 2015, the reforms to the Senate that would see its power diminished and membership changed were passed by the Senate on 13 October.^[200] 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 of Deputies approved the reform with 361 votes, while the opposition abandoned the house.^[201] On 4 December, the reform was rejected in the 2016 Italian constitutional referendum and Renzi resigned as a result.^[202]

Immigration

Number of immigrants arriving by boat in Italy from 1997 to 2016

As a result of the Libyan and Syrian Civil Wars, a major problem faced by Renzi upon becoming Prime Minister 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.^[203][204] On 8 August, the Renzi 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 were ferried over from Libya. Most of the migrants had come from Syria, Eritrea, and various countries in West Africa.^[205]

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.^[206] On 19 April 2015, a migrant shipwreck took place in the Mediterranean Sea, causing the death of more than 700 migrants from North Africa.^[207] 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 François Hollande, Maltese prime minister Joseph Muscat,^[208] and Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras.^[209] The call led to an emergency meeting of European interior ministers to address the problem of migrant deaths. In a speech addressing immigration, Renzi condemned human trafficking as a "new slave trade".^[210] About the crisis, Renzi said: "Europe is the greatest political victory of the twentieth century, but it is fuelled by ideals, not by the short-sightedness of those who would raise walls. Europe is in danger of collapsing when it becomes simply a set of self-interests." In January 2016, his Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said: "A choice must be made between Dublin and Schengen. Both agreements cannot hold today."^[211]

Same-sex unions

Renzi during a press conference in June 2016

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 political parties in Italy had presented different motions on civil unions, which were all rejected except for the PD's, which also called for civil unions to be approved. Shortly before becoming Prime Minister, Renzi stated that he favoured the introduction of civil unions for same-sex couples.^[212] 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".^[213][214]

On 7 October, Renzi introduced a bill to the Italian 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.^[215] Although Renzi secured the support of the PD and the main opposition Forza Italia party, many conservative and Catholic members of parliament from both parties, including one of its coalition partners, the New Centre-Right (NCD), criticised the bill.^[216][217] 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.^[218][219]

Following months of public and parliamentary debate,^[220][221] the Senate voted in favour of Renzi's proposals to legalise civil unions on 25 February 2016, with 173 votes in favour and 71 against.^[222] 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.^[223] 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 NCD.^[224] 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 also adopted, and raised the possibility of introducing it in a separate bill at a later date.^[225] On 11 May, the Chamber of Deputies approved the final proposals, with 369 votes in favour and 163 against.^[226]

Social policies

Renzi's so-called "schools package" was among its 1,000 days reforms to kickstart the Italian economy, and included hiring based on merit rather than seniority, favouring full-time hiring over substitutes, and increasing teachers for disabled children.^[227] During a press conference on 3 September 2014, Renzi announced an online consultation with students, teachers, and citizens ahead of the major school reforms promoted by education minister Stefania Giannini.^[228][229] On 9 July 2015, despite the opposition of an overwhelming majority of teachers and students alike to the design of the school reform, this was finally approved by the Chamber of Deputies, with 277 votes against 173.^[230]

During a ceremony at the Italian National Olympic Committee on 1 December 2014, Renzi officially launched the candidacy of Rome for the 2024 Summer Olympics.^[231] Renzi stated: "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."^[232] On 21 September 2016, the 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.^[233]

Universal Exposition

"No-Expo" protests during the inauguration of Expo 2015 in Milan

During Renzi's premiership, Milan hosted the Universal Exposition;^[234][235] the themes were technology, innovation, culture, and traditions concerning food.^[236] Participants to the Expo, hosted inside the Expo 2015 pavilions, included 145 countries, three international organisations, several civil society organisations, several corporations, and non-governmental organisations.^[237]

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. Expo also created some tensions with the Holy See and the Italian government; Pope Francis condemned the concept of Expo, saying that it "obeys the culture of waste and does not contribute to a model of equitable and sustainable development".^[238] As Vatican City invested €3 million to obtain its own pavilion at the event before his appointment to the papacy, Pope Francis said that although it is a good thing that the Church is involved in causes that battle hunger and promote cleaner energy, too much money was wasted on the Expo itself by Vatican City.^[239]

2016 earthquakes

Rubble in the town centre of Amatrice, 2016

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.^[240] On 1 September, 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.^[241]

A magnitude 6.1 intraplate earthquake struck 3 km (2 mi) west of Visso on 26 October at 21:18 local time (19:18 UTC). The earthquake, which occurred two months after a magnitude 6.2 earthquake in August, struck about 30 km (20 mi) to the northwest of the August earthquake's epicentre.^[242] The civil protection estimated the consequences less dramatically than feared. According to official data, a man died because he had suffered a heart attack as a result of the quake.^[243]

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.^[244] This quake was the largest in Italy in 36 years, since the 1980 Irpinia earthquake.^[245] The three earthquakes caused almost 100,000 homeless.^[246]

Europe

Following the 2014 European Parliament election in Italy, which saw the PD 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 PES.^[250] This was in opposition to German chancellor Angela Merkel, widely considered the de facto leader of the European People's Party; the two leaders have been referred to as Merkenzi.^[251] Renzi and Merkel had many bilateral meetings, the first on 17 March 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 European Union.^[252] 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 Buonarroti's David.^[253]

Renzi with French president François Hollande in 2015

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 European troika of the European Commission, European Central Bank, and International Monetary Fund but also on more flexible policies to promote economic growth in the European Union.^[254][255] 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.^[256] On 7 January 2015, after the Charlie Hebdo shooting in Paris which caused the death of 17 people, 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.^[257] On 11 January, he joined more than forty world leaders and three million people in the Republican marches organised by President Hollande.^[258]

Renzi built a constructive relationship with the 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.^[259][260] On the same day, Renzi also met Blair, the former British prime minister whom Renzi had previously called a political inspiration to him.^[261] On 2 October, 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.^[262]

On 1 August, 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 High Representative, ensuring that Italy controlled one of the two most senior posts in the European Commission.^[263][264]

Renzi and the other NATO Quint leaders in 2016

In September, Renzi participated in the 2014 Wales summit. 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.^[265] This summit was the first held after the Russian military intervention in Ukraine and the 2014 Iraq conflict with the Islamic State of Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.^[266]

On 3 February 2015, Renzi received the newly elected Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras of SYRIZA 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.^[267]

United States

Similar to his predecessors, Renzi continued the long-standing Italian policy of a close relationship with the United States, building a partnership with President Barack Obama. Italy supported the United States in the military intervention against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), and participated in the international sanctions during the Ukrainian crisis against Russia following their invasion of East Ukraine.^[268]

Renzi with President Barack Obama at the White House in October 2016

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.^[269] Obama stated afterwards that he had been impressed by the reforms Renzi wanted to undertake.^[270][271] Renzi himself said that he considered Obama an example of the policies he wanted to achieve.^[272]

On 22 September, Renzi visited Silicon Valley in California. In San Francisco, he met with young Italian emigrants who have created startup companies in the United States.^[273] He also visited the headquarters of Twitter, Google, and Yahoo! to hold talks with chief executives.^[274] Renzi was accompanied by former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and George Shultz, and by the former American ambassador to Italy Ronald P. Spogli.^[275] He later spoke at Stanford University as the guest of university president John L. Hennessy.^[276]

The following day, Renzi spoke at a United Nations summit in New York City, focusing on the problem of climate change.^[277] Following the summit, Renzi met former President Bill Clinton and his wife, the former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.^[278] At the end of his trip, Renzi participated in a reception hosted by Obama.^[279]

Renzi was received at the White House in April 2015. He and President Obama discussed many issues, including the war in Donbass, the Libyan Civil War, and ISIL. They discussed Europe's economy, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, and climate change and energy security.^[280] In October 2015, the Italian government announced that it would prolong its military presence in Afghanistan along with the United States Army in order to continue its security mission and prevent the rise of Islamist forces such as Al-Qaeda and ISIL.^[281]

On 18 October 2016, President Obama invited Renzi and his wife Agnese Landini 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 the United States president, commented that he had "saved the best for last", and the two reiterated their support for one another.^[282]

Asia

Renzi built up a close relationship with Japanese prime minister Shinzō Abe; the two Prime Ministers were both against austerity and seeking to reform the constitutions of their countries.^[283] 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 relations with China and the stability of East Asia.^[284]

Renzi during a press conference in March 2015

On 9 June, Renzi travelled to Hanoi, Vietnam, to meet with President Trương Tấn Sang, Prime Minister Nguyễn Tấn Dũng, and the Communist Party of Vietnam's general secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng to sign economic treaties worth around US$5 billion to the Italian economy.^[285][286] 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.^[287][288] During the visit, Renzi placed a wreath in the mausoleum of the former North Vietnamese president Ho Chi Minh.^[289]

On 11 June, Renzi met in Beijing with Chinese president Xi Jinping, who congratulated him for the "important reforms" being undertaken by his government.^[290] Xi also stated that China would continue co-operation with Italy ahead of Expo 2015 in Milan.^[291][292] 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.^[293]

On 12 June, Renzi met Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev in Astana, where they discussed withdrawal of Italian Army from Afghanistan.^[294][295] On 18 November, Renzi travelled to Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, where he signed with Turkmen president Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow a number of economic pacts securing increased gas supply.^[296]

Africa

During his premiership, Renzi started a policy review which led to the creation of the Italy–Africa initiative, which included renewable energy cooperation and a new package of development aid in fields stretching from health care to culture; counterterrorism has been a key part of his agenda, but the East Africa region is also important to stop the migration flows from there to Italy through North Africa, especially Libya.^[297]

On 4 March 2014, Renzi travelled to Tunisia, where he had a meeting with Mustapha Ben Jafar. With Jafar, Renzi discussed the problem of illegal immigration to Italy from the coasts of North Africa. The trip to Tunisia was the first official one made by Renzi as Prime Minister.^[298] On 18 March 2015, after the Bardo National 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.^[299]

On 19 July, Renzi started a major trip to Africa, meeting the Mozambican president Armando Guebuza.^[300] Renzi signed economic pacts to create investments by the Italian government-owned oil company Eni in the African country for US$50 billion.^[301][302] The following day, he visited the Republic of the Congo, where he met Congolese president Denis Sassou Nguesso, with whom he signed a co-operation for the extraction of oil in the country.^{[303][304][305]} Some journalists like Giuseppe Oddo criticised the meeting with Sassou Nguesso, who is considered one of the more corrupt dictators of Africa.^[306] Renzi later met with Angolan president José Eduardo dos Santos in Luanda.^[307][308] During the visit, Renzi placed a memorial wreath in the mausoleum of Agostinho Neto, the first Angolan president.^[309]

On 24 July, under the direction of Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini, the government worked for the release of Mariam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag, a Sudanese woman had been who sentenced to death for being a Christian. Thanks largely to the good relations between Sudan and Italy, Ibrahim was released and permitted to fly to Italy on a government plane.^[310][311]

On 2 December, Renzi went to Algiers, where he met Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika and Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal. With the two leaders of the country, Renzi discussed the 2014 Libyan crisis, immigration from North Africa, and also about gas imports from Algeria as an alternative to Russian imports, following the tensions between the European Union and Russia.^[312][313]

In January 2016, Renzi continued his policy toward Africa; he had a three-day trip to Nigeria, Ghana, and Senegal. The main tasks of this diplomatic trip were the fight against the Islamic terrorism and the European migrant crisis in the Mediterranean Sea;^[314] with Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari, Renzi signed an agreement on enhancing co-operation between the Nigerian Police and the Italian Police.^[315]

Renzi has been one of the strongest supporters of Libyan prime minister Fayez al-Sarraj and of his government of national union. In August 2016, 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.^[316]

Russia

Renzi and President Vladimir Putin at the opening of Russia Day at Expo 2015

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.^[317] Following the 2014 Russian military intervention in Ukraine in Ukraine, relations worsened. On 2 March, Renzi accused Putin of having committed "an unacceptable violation".^[318][319] During a speech to the Chamber of Deputies on 19 March, Renzi stated that the 2014 Crimean status referendum was illegal and that the G8 countries must start co-operating to solve the 2014 Crimean crisis and prevent a return to the Cold War.^[320] In June, he subsequently participated in the 40th G7 summit in Brussels, the first one held after the suspension of Russia from the G8 following the annexation of Crimea in March.^[321][322]

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.^[323] Renzi and Putin also had a bilateral meeting on 16 October, when Renzi hosted the Asia–Europe Meeting in Milan with 53 other leaders of the world.^[324] During the 2014 G-20 Brisbane summit on 15 November, the two leaders had another meeting, where they discussed the war in Donbass but also on the civil wars in Libya and Syria.^[325]

On 5 March 2015, Renzi met President Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow. The talks between the leaders were focused on international issues, such as the settlement of the crisis in Ukraine, the situations in the Middle East and in Libya, as well as fighting terrorism.^[326][327] Putin guaranteed Russian support in case of a United Nations intervention in Libya against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.^[328] Ahead of the bilateral meeting, Prime Minister 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.^[329]

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 Islamic terrorism.^{[330][331][332]} Renzi questioned Nord Stream 2, a new Russia–Germany natural gas pipeline, saying: "I found it surprising that the South Stream project was blocked [the Balkan pipeline South Stream was cancelled by Russia in December 2014 following obstacles from the EU], while now we are discussing a doubling up of Nord Stream."^[333]

Middle East

On 2 August 2014, Renzi met with Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Cairo, holding talks about a variety of issues, including the 2014 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.^{[334][335][336]} In making the visit, Renzi became the first Western world leader to visit President el-Sisi since 2014 Egyptian presidential election. On 15 January 2015, after the 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.^[337] On 11 July, a car bomb exploded outside the Italian consulate in Cairo, resulting in at least one death and four injured. The Islamic State claimed responsibility.^{[338][339][340]}

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.^[341] Regeni was a PhD student at Girton College, Cambridge,^[342] researching independent trade unions in Egypt.^[343] Due to Regeni's research activities and left-wing political leanings, the security services of el-Sisi's government are strongly suspected of involvement in his murder,^[344] although Egypt's media and government deny this and say secret undercover agents belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood carried out the crime in order to embarrass the Egyptian government and destabilise relations between Italy and Egypt.^[345][346]

Renzi with Iranian president Hassan Rouhani meeting with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, 12 April 2016

On 20 August 2014, Renzi travelled to Iraq in the midst of the insurgency led by the Islamic State.^[347] He met with President Fuad Masum, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, and his immediate predecessor Nouri al-Maliki.^[348] On the same day, Renzi travelled north to Erbil to meet Mas'ud Barzani, the president of Iraqi Kurdistan, and Prime Minister Nechervan Barzani.^[349] 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.^[350] While Renzi was in Iraq, the Italian Parliament approved a proposal to arm the Peshmerga soldiers fighting against the Islamic State.^[351]

During the 69th United Nations General Assembly on 23 September, 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.^[352] On 11 December, Renzi travelled to Ankara for a second meeting with Erdoğan, during which Renzi expressed his support for accession of Turkey to the European Union. On the same day, he met with Turkish prime minister Ahmet Davutoğlu.^[353]

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 Airways deal.^[354] The two leaders discussed joint co-operation domains and enhancing trade exchange and co-operation in energy and aerospace.^[355]

As Prime Minister, Renzi had good relations with both Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.^[356] 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.^[357] Renzi was the first leader to visit Israel after the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the deal reached between P5+1 and Iran. Whereas Netanyahu criticised the deal, Renzi supported it, saying that "Israel's security is the security of Europe and mine as well."^[358]

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.^[359] They also discussed the war against the Islamic State in the Middle East and Libya.^[360] On 13 and 14 April, he became the first Western leader to visit Iran after the international agreement on the nuclear program of Iran.^[361] In Iran, Renzi met both President Rouhani and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.^[362]

Latin America

Renzi with Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto in Mexico City, 22 April 2016

After announcing an increase in Italian investment in Central America and South America, Renzi undertook a number of official trips across the continent, travelling to Chile, Peru, and Colombia in October 2015.^[363][364] 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.^[365] Renzi also visited the European Southern Observatory of Paranal in the Atacama desert.^[366][367] During these trips, Renzi had numerous meetings with communities of Italian-born Latin Americans in these countries.^[368]

In a surprise visit on 28 October, 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 United States–Cuban Thaw of relations between the United States and Cuba.^{[369][370][371]}

In February 2016, Renzi met Argentine president Mauricio Macri during a state visit to Buenos Aires; 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.^[372][373] During his premiership, Renzi has also developed close relationship with Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto.^[374]