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POLITICS

Italy’s new government, by the numbers

Close to three months after a fiercely fought election, Italy has a government – and for the first time, it's run entirely by populists. The Local breaks down the historic cabinet in figures.

Published: 1 June 2018 19:56 CEST
Italy's new government, by the numbers
Italy's new prime minister, Giuseppe Conte. Photo: Andreas Solaro/AFP

One: the number of the European Union's founding members to have elected a government of populists.

Two: the number of parties governing Italy. The Five Star Movement (M5S) and the League thrashed out a compromise between the two of them, minus the two other parties that the League ran with in the general election in March.

Three: the number of times that a president has vetoed a nominee for minister in the past 25 years. In each case, parties have come to much the same solution the M5S and League reached: switching the disputed nominee to a less sensitive portfolio. Only in this instance, however, did the parties throw in the towel, only to grab it back a few days later.

Four: the number of days that Carlo Cottarelli was prime minister in waiting. The economist was designated caretaker PM on Monday, but gave up his mandate on Thursday after party leaders made a last-minute compromise to form their political government.

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Four: the number of people who now have “prime minister” in their job description. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has two deputies, Luigi Di Maio of the M5S and the League's Matteo Salvini, as well as an “undersecretary for prime minister”, Giancarlo Giorgetti.

Five: the number of women in the new cabinet. Out of 18 ministers. It's hardly the gender-equal cabinet that the M5S had promised prior to the election.

Five: also the number of years in a full legislative term. Will this one last that long? In Italy, most don't.

Six: the number of ministers aligned with the League. Nine are aligned with the M5S and another three are considered independent. 

Eight: the number of ministers who are not in parliament and do not hold a position of elected office. It's a little ironic for two parties who so vehemently opposed the prospect of an unelected, technocratic government.

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17: the percentage of the popular vote that the League won in the general election. The M5S won 33 percent, making them Italy's single biggest party by some way. 

32: the size of the coalition's majority in the lower house of parliament. It's even smaller in the upper house: under ten votes.

57: the number of pages in the M5S-League joint government programme. (You don't have to read them all: find a summary here.)

60-70: the percentage of Italians who oppose leaving the euro, according to a recent survey. Both the M5S and the League say that option's off the table, but it's something both parties have pushed for until recently.

81: the age of Italy's oldest cabinet minister, Paolo Savona, who also happens to be the most controversial. Read a profile of him here. 

88: the number of days it took since the March 4th vote to form a government. Since the founding of the Italian Republic after World War Two, the average has been 44.7 days; before now, the record was set in 1992, when a coalition of Socialists, Christian Democrats and Liberals took 85 days to agree on a cabinet. The resulting government's time in office was as short as the negotiations were long: it lasted just ten months. 

READ ALSO: Here is Italy's new cabinet in full


Photo: Italian Presidency Press Office/AFP

POLITICS

Italy’s Meloni criticises her own government’s ‘Big Brother tax’ law

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Wednesday criticised an "invasive" tax evasion measure reintroduced by her own government, sparking accusations of incompetence from opposition lawmakers.

Published: 22 May 2024 17:12 CEST
Italy's Meloni criticises her own government's 'Big Brother tax' law

The measure, allowing Italy’s tax authorities to check bank accounts to look for discrepancies between someone’s declared income and their spending, was abolished in 2018 but its return was announced in the government’s official journal of business this week.

Meloni had previously been strongly critical of the ‘redditometro’ measure, and took to social media on Wednesday to defend herself from accusations of hypocrisy.

“Never will any ‘Big Brother tax’ be introduced by this government,” she wrote on Facebook.

Meloni said she had asked deputy economy minister Maurizio Leo – a member of her own far-right Brothers of Italy party, who introduced the measure – to bring it to the next cabinet meeting.

“And if changes are necessary, I will be the first to ask,” she wrote.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who heads the right-wing Forza Italia party, also railed against what he called an “obsolete tool”.

He called for it to be revoked, saying it did not fight tax evasion but “oppresses, invades people’s lives”.

Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, who leads the far-right League party, said it was “one of the horrors of the past” and deserved to stay there.

Opposition parties revelled in the turmoil within the governing coalition, where tensions are already high ahead of European Parliament elections in which all three parties are competing with each other.

“They are not bad, they are just incapable,” said former premier Matteo Renzi, now leader of a small centrist party.

Another former premier, Five Star Movement leader Giuseppe Conte, asked of Meloni: “Was she asleep?”

The measure allows tax authorities to take into account when assessing someone’s real income elements including jewellery, life insurance, horse ownership, gas and electricity bills, pets and hairdressing expenses.

According to the government, tax evasion and fraud cost the Italian state around 95 to 100 billion euros each year.

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