Mario Draghi wins support to form government in Italy

Mario Draghi, a respected economist who once headed the European Central Bank, gathered enough support Friday to form a national unity government with wide backing in Parliament, in hopes of leading the country out of the coronavirus crisis and repairing the economic damage caused by the pandemic.

Draghi accepted a mandate from Italy’s president, Sergio Mattarella, to form a new Cabinet and seek a vote of confidence in Parliament. But his rise has already reshaped the country’s fragmented political landscape.

The new government is expected to prioritize Italy’s vaccination campaign, expand welfare protections for those out of work and increase support for healthy companies and for education. Draghi is also likely to tackle measures that Europe has long pressed Italy to implement, such as streamlining bureaucracy, making the justice system more efficient and instituting a tax overhaul.

The new cabinet will include mostly politicians but also some technocrats like Daniele Franco, director-general of the Bank of Italy, as finance minister, and Marta Cartabia, former president of Italy’s Constitutional Court, as justice minister.

The new government brings together an unlikely array of rival parties, from historical liberals to the anti-establishment movement to the far right. The left-wing Democratic Party will join the nationalist League party, Silvio Berlusconi’s center-right Forza Italia party and the populist Five Star Movement.

Last week, Mattarella called for a high-profile government after political leaders failed to reshuffle the wobbly coalition government of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. Conte was toppled after Matteo Renzi, leader of a minority party and another former prime minister, pulled his support.

Draghi was enthusiastically endorsed by Italy’s pro-European forces and centrists who represent the country’s business elites. He also won the backing of the Five Star Movement, the biggest party in Parliament.

The leader of the League party, Matteo Salvini, also decided to cooperate.

For Salvini, endorsing the former head of the European Central Bank represents a radical shift. Even on immigration, talks with Draghi seemed to have already softened Salvini's usually harsh rhetoric.

“On immigration, I just want a European approach,” he said.

“Draghi’s appointment already had an effect,” Andrea Orlando, the Democratic Party’s deputy secretary, wrote on Twitter last week. “Salvini became pro-European in 24 hours.”