ABSTRACT
Nineteen-ninety-six was a year rich in novelty. After the "stalled transition" of 1995 many things began to change. The most obvious of these changes was the ending of Lamberto Dini's unelected government of technocrats, supported by a heterogeneous group of supporters in Parliament and its replacement by Romano Prodi's government, a coalition of the parties which had won the general election of 21 April 1996. But what will probably be remembered as an even more important change was the new climate of dialogue amongst the main political forces which had emerged in this period of transition between the two Republics. In 1996, despite the general elections, cooperation became part of the political game. The initiative of pds Secretary Massimo D'Alema and Forza Italia leader Silvio Berlusconi to reach mutual agreement had begun already before the fall of Dini's government and was concretized in their efforts to form a government supported by the main political alliances.
