Cabinet Letta

Letta cabinet on April 28, 2013 with President Giorgio Napolitano

The Letta cabinet ruled Italy from April 28, 2013 to February 22, 2014; before that, the Monti cabinet ruled , then the Renzi cabinet . The government of Prime Minister Enrico Letta was supported by a grand coalition of Partito Democratico (PD), Popolo della Libertà (PdL) and the Scelta Civica (SC) citizens' list until November 2013 . This political constellation arose because of the stalemate after the parliamentary elections at the end of February 2013. The Forza Italia party , which was re-founded in November 2013 by Silvio Berlusconi , did not join a number of conservative PdL parliamentarians around Deputy Prime Minister Angelino Alfano . They continued to support the Letta government with their new center-right Nuovo Centrodestra (NCD). Forza Italia, on the other hand, went into opposition.

Enrico Letta and his cabinet resigned on February 14, 2014 after his Democratic Party approved a new government under the new party leader Matteo Renzi the day before . President Giorgio Napolitano entrusted the Letta cabinet with the continuation of the current official business until the new government was sworn in.

Ministers and State Secretaries

Office	image	minister		Vice Minister	(Sub) state secretaries
Prime Minister			Enrico Letta (PD)		Filippo Patroni Griffi (independent), Giovanni Legnini (PD), Marco Minniti (PD)
Deputy Prime Minister			Angelino Alfano (PdL, NCD from Nov. 15, 2013)
Ministries
Foreign Affairs			Emma Bonino ( RI )	Lapo Pistelli (PD), Bruno Archi ( FI ), Marta Dassù (independent)	Mario Giro (SC)
Interior			Angelino Alfano (PdL, then NCD)	Filippo Bubbico (PD)	Domenico Manzione (independent), Giampiero Bocci (PD)
Judiciary			Annamaria Cancellieri (independent)		Giuseppe Berretta (PD), Cosimo Maria Ferri (independent)
Economy and finance			Fabrizio Saccomanni (independent)	Stefano Fassina (PD) (until January 4, 2014), Luigi Casero (PdL, then NCD)	Pier Paolo Baretta (PD), Alberto Giorgetti (PdL, then NCD)
defense			Mario Mauro (SC)		Roberta Pinotti (PD), Gioacchino Alfano (PdL, then NCD)
Infrastructure and traffic			Maurizio Lupi (PdL, then NCD)	Vincenzo de Luca (PD)	Erasmo D'Angelis (PD), Rocco Girlanda (FI)
Economic development			Flavio Zanonato (PD)	Carlo Calenda (SC), Antonio Catricalà (independent)	Simona Vicari (PdL, then NCD), Claudio De Vincenti (PD)
Agriculture and Forestry			Nunzia De Girolamo (PdL, then NCD) (until January 27, 2014)		Maurizio Martina (PD), Giuseppe Castiglione (PdL, then NCD)
Education and Research			Maria Chiara Carrozza (PD)		Gabriele Toccafondi (PdL, then NCD), Marco Rossi-Doria (independent), Gian Luca Galetti (UDC)
Culture and tourism			Massimo Bray (PD)		Simonetta Giordani (independent), Ilaria Borletti Buitoni (SC)
health			Beatrice Lorenzin (PdL, then NCD)		Paolo Fadda (PD)
Work and social			Enrico Giovannini (independent)	Maria Cecilia Guerra (PD)	Jole Santelli (FI) (until December 6, 2013), Carlo Dell'Aringa (PD)
Environment, landscape and marine protection			Andrea Orlando (PD)		Marco Flavio Cirillo (PdL, then NCD)
Minister with no portfolio
European politics			Enzo Moavero Milanesi (SC)
Constitutional reforms			Gaetano Quagliariello (PdL, then NCD)
Territorial cohesion			Carlo Trigilia (PD)
Regional affairs and sports			Graziano Delrio (PD)		Walter Ferrazza
Equality, sport and youth (until June 24, 2013)			Josefa Idem (PD) (until June 24, 2013)
Relations with parliament			Dario Franceschini (PD)		Sesa Amici (PD), Sabrina de Camillis (PdL, then NCD)
Integration and youth			Cécile Kyenge (PD)
Public administration			Giampiero D'Alia ( UDC )		Gianfranco Miccichè (Grande Sud), Michaela Biancofiore (PdL) (until October 4, 2013)

Anna Maria Cancellieri and Enzo Moavero Milanesi were already part of the Monti government, Cancellieri as Minister of the Interior and Moavero as Minister for European Policy. Angelino Alfano was Minister of Justice in the Berlusconi government from 2008 to 2011 and Emma Bonino was Minister of Commerce in the Prodi government from 2006 to 2008 . With six or seven women ministers, the cabinet has the highest proportion of women of any previous government in Italy. With Cecile Kyenge, for the first time a politician from Africa has joined an Italian government.

Changes

The appointment of the South Tyrolean MP Michaela Biancofiore as State Secretary in the department for equality, sport and youth caused protests, as she had caused a sensation in the past with numerous homophobic statements. Enrico Letta then transferred her to the Ministry of Public Administration just two days after her appointment.

On May 17, 2013, Senator Marco Minniti (PD) was appointed another State Secretary in the Prime Minister's Office. There he takes over responsibility for the civil intelligence services in Italy . Minniti founded the Intelligence Culture and Strategic Analysis (ICSAS) think tank in Rome in 2009 . At the cabinet meeting on May 17, it was also decided that the Prime Minister, ministers, deputy ministers and state secretaries will no longer receive any official salaries if they have been elected to parliament and receive members' salaries from there.

On June 24, 2013, the German Minister for Equality, Sport and Youth, Josefa Idem , resigned because of a tax affair. Their responsibilities have been assigned to Ministers Delrio (Sport), Kyenge (Youth) and Guerra (Equality).

On September 28, 2013, State Secretary Michaela Biancofiore submitted her resignation at the request of Silvio Berlusconi, which was accepted by Enrico Letta on October 4, 2013.

Special occurrences

At the end of July 2013, Silvio Berlusconi was sentenced to a one-year prison term for tax fraud. Party leader Angelino Alfano and leading members of the PdL (Berlusconi's party) came together for an emergency meeting. They considered resigning the PdL ministers, which would sooner or later result in new elections, since the government no longer had a parliamentary majority. Apparently, this was supposed to put pressure on President Giorgio Napolitano to pronounce an amnesty for Berlusconi.

On September 28, 2013, Silvio Berlusconi called on the five ministers and state secretaries of his PdL party to leave the government in order to prevent his expulsion from the Senate. Prime Minister Letta then put the vote of confidence in parliament. After internal disputes in the PdL and the announcement by PdL MPs that they would vote for Letta, Berlusconi himself turned around shortly before the vote and called on the Senate to trust Letta, which was done with a large majority. The PdL members remained in the government. Only Michaela Biancofiore's resignation was accepted by Enrico Letta.

The irreconcilable differences between Berlusconi and his closest confidants on the one hand and Alfano with his government-loyal ministers and deputies on the other led to the split in the PdL in November 2013, to the re-establishment of Berlusconi's Forza Italia party and to the foundation of the new center-right movement Nuovo Centrodestra . While Berlusconi and his hardliners continued to advocate the overthrow of the Letta government because the coalition had not adequately protected him from the “communist judiciary”, Angelino Alfano and his NCD continued to support the government until a PD-internal decision fell brought.

See also

• Executive section in the main article on the Italian political system

Footnotes

1. ↑ "Vice Minister" has been an additional term in Italy since 2001 for (sub) state secretaries in a prominent position, who relieve the respective minister in a special way. The number of vice ministers is limited to ten. See Ministry (Italy) and legal bases
2. ↑ The equivalent of German or Austrian state secretaries is called Sottosegretario di Stato or "Unterstaatssekretär" in Italy . Segretario di Stato or "State Secretary" is a not very common synonym for minister (with a portfolio) in Italy . In rare cases it is mentioned as an additional official title (Ministro - Segretario di Stato) .
3. ↑ Confusion about Biancofiore from South Tyrol: Letta pulls the rip cord. Tiroler Tageszeitung , May 4, 2013, accessed on March 3, 2020 . 
4. ↑ Consiglio dei ministri n.4 Presidency of the Council of Ministers (Italy) , May 17, 2013, accessed May 17, 2013 . 
5. ↑ Ciao, Michaela. (No longer available online.) The Neue Südtiroler Tageszeitung, October 6, 2013, archived from the original on October 9, 2013 ; Retrieved October 7, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
6. ↑ faz.net August 2, 2013: threatening gestures after Berlusconi's conviction
7. ↑ Political chaos in Italy: Berlusconi's ministers leave government on Spiegel Online from September 28, 2013, accessed on September 29, 2013.
8. ^ Controversy over Berlusconi: Italy's Prime Minister Letta wants to ask a question of confidence. Spiegel Online , September 27, 2013, accessed September 29, 2013 . 
9. ↑ Tobias Bayer: Berlusconi backs down - victory for Letta. Die Welt , October 2, 2013, accessed October 7, 2013 . 
10. ↑ Ciao, Michaela. (No longer available online.) The Neue Südtiroler Tageszeitung, October 6, 2013, archived from the original on October 9, 2013 ; Retrieved October 7, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  

Web links

Commons : Cabinet Letta  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• I Governo Letta in the Portale storico of the Camera dei deputati .