Mario Draghi, a renowned economist who once headed the European Central Bank, gathered enough support on Friday to form a national unity government with wide support in parliament in hopes of rescuing the country from the coronavirus crisis and economic damage. causing the pandemic.
Mr. Draghi accepts a mandate from Italian President Sergio Mattarella to form a new cabinet and gain confidence in parliament. But its rise has already reformed the country’s fragmented political landscape.
The new government is expected to prioritize Italy’s vaccination campaign, expand welfare protection for the unemployed and increase support for healthy enterprises and education. Mr. Draghi is also likely to take measures that Europe has long forced Italy to implement, such as streamlining bureaucracy, making the justice system more efficient and introducing a tax recovery.
The new cabinet will mostly include politicians, but also technocrats such as Daniele Franco, the director general of the Bank of Italy, as economy minister, and Marta Cartabia, the former president of the Italian constitutional court, as justice minister. Mr. Draghi has maintained some former government ministers in key positions, such as the head of the health ministry.
The government brings an unlikely series of rival parties from both sides of the political spectrum, from the historical liberals to the anti-establishment movement, and the far right.
The left-wing Democratic Party will join the nationalist league party, Silvio Berlusconi’s center-right Forza Italia party and the populists of the Five Star Movement. Luigi Di Maio, the current foreign minister and a top five official, said Mr. Berlusconi, a media magnate and former prime minister, was called a ‘traitor’.
Last week, Mr. Mattarella, the president, called for a sensational government after political leaders could not shake Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte’s shaky coalition government. Mr. Conte was overthrown after Matteo Renzi, the leader of a minority party and another former prime minister, withdrew his support.
Mr. Draghi has received an enthusiastic endorsement from the Italian pro-European forces and the centralists representing the country’s business elite. He also garnered the support of the populist Five Star Movement, which although supported in the polls, is still the largest party in parliament.
“Our destination is not decoupling,” Luigi Di Maio, the outgoing Foreign Minister of the Five Star Movement, said in a Facebook video, adding that it would be unforgivable for other parties to spend the European first aid funds that Italy will receive. “I think we should participate.”
But the populist party only gave the final approval to Mr. Draghi’s government given after saying a majority of its core members approve of joining the government.
Even Mr. Conte, the outgoing prime minister who initially hoped to get the chance to form the new government through a reshuffle, said he was voting for Mr. Draghi’s government will bring out.
“There are such urgent needs that it is a good thing to have a government anyway,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
The leader of the nationalist league party, Matteo Salvini, also decided to work together. If he had opposed the new government, he would have dared to upset his strong base in the industrial north of Italy.
Mr. Salvini also took the opportunity to say about the substantial national recovery plan that Mr. Draghi will drive in the coming months.
“We can be part of a government that thinks about growth,” he said. Salvini said during a news conference Tuesday. “We trust Professor Draghi.”
Salvini, who already wore ‘Enough Euro’ T-shirts in 2018 and defined the European Union as a pit of snakes and foxes, is a radical shift by the former head of the European Central Bank. Even on the immigration issue, it seemed like talks with Mr. Draghi has already softened his usually harsh language.
“As far as immigration is concerned, I just want a European approach,” he said.
With this, Mr. Salvini indicated that he was prepared to compromise, even over his most important battle in recent years, one that helped his party gain support in public opinion as well as in the election.
“The appointment of Draghi has already had an effect,” said Andrea Orlando, the deputy secretary of the Democratic Party. posted on Twitter last week. “Salvini became pro-European within 24 hours.”