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Italy’s new government, led by former European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi, will be sworn in on Saturday, ending weeks of political turmoil.
Draghi, 73, announced his cabinet, which contains a mix of political and technocratic ministers, to President Sergio Mattarella on Friday.
Some roles were reconfirmed, such as Luigi Di Maio as Chancellor, Roberto Speranza as Minister of Health, Luciana Lamorgese as Minister of the Interior and Dario Franceschini as Minister of Culture.
The Ministry of Economy has fallen to Daniele Franco, current director general of the Bank of Italy, and the Ministry of Justice, to Marta Cartabia, who until last September was president of the Constitutional Court.
The government, Italy’s third administration in less than three years, will face votes of confidence in both houses of parliament on Monday and Tuesday.
Draghi, a respected figure at home and internationally, managed to convince nearly every major party in the country to support his government, with leaders of the far-right League and the populist Five Star Movement (M5S) adopting more moderate pro-European tones in recent days.
Draghi also agreed to install a new “ecological transition ministry”, headed by Roberto Cingolani, Leonardo SpA’s director of technology and innovation, as one of the conditions to secure M5S support.
Draghi also has the backing of Italians, with more than 60% supporting a Draghi-led government in a poll Thursday. In a survey earlier in the week, more than 50% said they expected Draghi’s leadership to last until the natural end of the administration in 2023.
Draghi’s appointment ends weeks of political upheaval unleashed after Matteo Renzi withdrew his Italia Viva from a ruling coalition made up of M5S and the center-left Democratic party due to clashes over how the government planned to spend the more than $ 200 billion. euros that Italy is preparing. receive from the EU Covid-19 recovery fund. Renzi’s move led Giuseppe Conte to resign as prime minister.
Dubbed “Super Mario” for his role in saving the euro, Draghi also has overwhelming support from the Italian press, who for the past week hailed him as “a new Italian miracle.”
Expectations that he will be able to reverse Italy’s fortunes are therefore as high as the stakes. Among his first major tasks will be accelerating a vaccination program as Italy struggles to emerge from the coronavirus pandemic, which has so far claimed 93,000 lives, while at the same time rescuing the economy from the worst recession since World War II. .
The last time a technocrat was appointed in Italy was in 2011, when Mario Monti was tasked with pulling the country out of an acute debt crisis that led to the resignation of Silvio Berlusconi as prime minister.
Monti also started out with a strong approval rating among the public, only for his popularity to wane as austerity measures were implemented. One big difference between the two terms is that Draghi will have money to spend instead of having to enact cuts.
He is expected to come up with a solid and workable plan for EU recovery money. However, a big challenge will be implementing the plan while pushing forward the reforms requested by the EU that are likely to trigger fierce battles between the various parliamentary factions.
“I’m not so sure that Draghi will find it so easy to do what everyone expects him to do,” said Mattia Diletti, a politics professor at Sapienza University in Rome.
“The press presents him as Jesus Christ, who can heal the child with the touch of a hand; they are waiting for him to fix the problems. My question is what happens to the country if Mario Draghi does not solve the problems? “
Diletti also fears the impact another technocratic government will have on Italy’s democracy. M5S emerged as a powerful force in the 2013 general elections, partly in reaction to the Monti government. M5S remains the largest party in parliament, but has lost more than half of its supporters since the general election in March 2018.
The main party that opposed Draghi was Giorgia Meloni’s far-right Brothers of Italy, which is also the only force that has grown in popularity over the past year.
“At what price will democracy have if for the second time in 10 years the political system cannot function?” Diletti said.
