Centre-left coalition (Italian: Coalizione di centrosinistra) refers to a political alliance of political parties in Italy, which contested the 2008 and the 2013 general elections under the leadership of Walter Veltroni and Pier Luigi Bersani, respectively. The coalition, built around the Democratic Party (established in 2007), succeeded to The Olive Tree, which existed between 1996 and 2007, and The Union, which contested the 2006 general election and collapsed during the 2008 political crisis.