Mario Draghi, the former head of the European Central Bank, took charge of Italy’s new government on Friday, and unveiled a cabinet that mixed unaffiliated technocrats with politicians from across his broad coalition, Trend reports citing Reuters.
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 he named a number of prominent figures from these various groups as ministers to cement their support.
Luigi Di Maio, a leader of the 5-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.
However, some key posts went to non-affiliated technocrats, including Daniele Franco, 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.
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 ($242.56 billion) it is set to receive from a European Union economic recovery fund.