Al Jazeera – Mario Draghi, the former head of the European Central Bank, has agreed to serve as the next prime minister of Italy and unveiled a cabinet that mixed unaffiliated technocrats with politicians from across a broad coalition.
President Sergio Mattarella asked Draghi to be prime minister after party wrangling brought down the previous administration, and set him the task of tackling the coronavirus health crisis and economic meltdown pummelling the country.
Following a week of consultations, almost all the main parties from across the political spectrum have endorsed Draghi, and on Friday he named several prominent figures from these various groups as ministers to cement their support.
Luigi Di Maio, a leader of the Five Star Movement, will remain foreign minister, while Giancarlo Giorgetti, a senior figure in the League party, will be industry minister. Andrea Orlando from the centre-left Democratic Party will be labour minister.
Technocrats included
However, some key posts went to non-affiliated technocrats, including Daniele Franco, the director general of the Bank of Italy, who was named as economy minister and Roberto Cingolani, a physicist and IT expert, who was handed the new role of minister for green transition.
There were only eight women in the 23-strong cabinet.
The new team will be sworn in on Saturday, opening the way for debates in both houses of parliament early next week, where Draghi will unveil his policy plans and face votes of confidence – a formality given his cross-party backing.
Draghi received a boost on Thursday when the largest group in parliament, the Five Star Movement, agreed to support the government, meaning it will have such a large majority that no single party will have the numbers to bring it down.
One of the reasons so many parties have joined forces in the ruling coalition is that they all want to have a say in how Italy spends more than 200 billion euros ($242bn) it is set to receive from a European Union economic recovery fund.
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