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(rōmä´nō prō´dē)
, 1939—, Italian politician, prime minister of Italy (1996—98), b. Scandiano. Educated at the Catholic Univ. of Milan (grad. 1961), he is a trained economist and served (1978—79) as Italy's minister for industry; he also was a professor of economics at the Univ. of Bologna, a visiting professor at Harvard, and a researcher at the London School of Economics. An expert on European industrial policy, he twice served (1982—89, 1993—94) as chairman of the Institute for Industrial Reconstruction (IRI), Italy's state holding company. Prodi reentered politics in 1994 as leader of the Olive Tree Alliance, a center-left coalition that was victorious in the Apr., 1996, general elections. As prime minister, Prodi formed the first left-leaning Italian government since World War II. He made Italy's joining the single European currency a prime goal and won passage of budgets that significantly reduced the government deficit. From 1999 to 2004, Prodi was president of the European Commission. In 2005 he won a center-left primary to lead the opposition coalition challenge to Prime Minister Berlusconi in 2006.
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