On 15 December 2013, the newly elected secretary of the Democratic Party, Matteo Renzi, announced that the party would work on the recognition of same-sex relationships. During the political campaign for the election of the new party secretary, Renzi identified the solution previously used in the UK and known as civil partnerships (although Britain subsequently introduced marriage for same-sex couples in 2014). Renzi subsequently became the Italian Prime Minister in February 2014. Leading Italian politicians such as Ignazio Marino, the Mayor of Rome, Giuliano Pisapia of Milan, and Virginio Merola of Bologna, pressed for such legislation to be urgently passed.