Presidency of the Council of Ministers (Italy)

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ItalyItaly Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri
Consist since 1848
Headquarters Palazzo Chigi , Rome
President of the Council of Ministers Giuseppe Conte
Website www.governo.it
Logo of the Council of Ministers Office

The Presidium of the Council of Ministers ( Italian : Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri , PCM for short) is the name given to the authority that supports the Prime Minister in his duties and that also houses his office. The Presidency of the Council of Ministers has its seat in the Palazzo Chigi in Rome . The official name of the Italian head of government is " President of the Council of Ministers " ( Presidente del Consiglio [dei Ministri]) . The current President of the Council of Ministers is Giuseppe Conte .

Tasks and structure

The Palazzo Chigi in Rome, headquarters of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers.
The Palazzo Braschi, until 1922 the first official seat of the Prime Minister in Rome.
The Palazzo Venezia, Mussolini's seat of government from 1929 to 1943.
The Viminale, seat of the Interior Ministry and former seat of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers.

The Presidency of the Council of Ministers supports the Prime Minister in his constitutional task of directing the general government policy (Article 95: dirige la politica generale del governo ). It serves as a meeting place for the Council of Ministers referred to the Cabinet , as the coordinating body for the cooperation of the ministries and as a liaison to the two chambers of Parliament , to the regions , provinces and municipalities , or to their associations, as well as bodies of the European Union . All Italian ministers without portfolio have their offices and departments at the Presidency of the Council of Ministers . The Presidency of the Council of Ministers is responsible for the civil intelligence services of Italy and a number of other authorities and institutions, including the National Office for Civil Service . It is also responsible for civil protection , known as “ civil protection ” , which in Italy functions across all authorities according to the principle of subsidiarity .

Due to its complex structure, the Presidium of the Council of Ministers can be compared to a ministry. Several state secretaries are at the side of the Prime Minister . In Italy these are not civil servants, but politicians. The head of office of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers is a general secretary . His office, the offices of the press secretary and the diplomatic and military advisers report directly to the Prime Minister. Subordinate to the Secretary General are central offices such as those for budget, internal auditing, flight readiness , the archive, the library and various liaison offices . In addition, there are the departments for protocol service , awards and heraldry, as well as the departments for public administration, law, economics, civil protection and central services.

State secretaries, on the other hand , report to the departments for press , intelligence services ( DIS ), economic planning and coordination, drug control, family policy, sport and community service. The ministers without portfolio do not lead any ministries, but a separate department ( Dipartimento ) is usually set up for them in the Presidium of the Council of Ministers . These are usually responsible for the regions, the European Union and various reforms that are felt to be particularly urgent.

Since there is (still) no regional chamber in Italy , the conferences of government representatives from the state, regions, (autonomous) provinces, cities and municipalities, which are located at the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, play an informal but important role.

building

The Palazzo Chigi, as the headquarters of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, is located in the center of Rome between Via del Corso and the Palazzo Montecitorio ( Chamber of Deputies ) in Piazza Colonna . Several departments and offices of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers are housed in separate buildings. Parts of the neighboring Galleria Alberto Sordi , the former monastery of San Silvestro in Capite in Via della Mercede , the Palazzo Cornaro in Via della Stamperia (seat of the State-Regions Conference), which is located directly behind the Palazzo Chigi on the Via dell'Impresa , Palazzo Verospi and Palazzo Vidoni Caffarelli . The Department for the Coordination of Intelligence Services (DIS) and its management services are based in a former postal savings bank building on Piazza Dante in the Esquilino district . The civil defense and some other organizational units are housed in other buildings. The national administrative school Scuola Nazionale dell'Amministrazione , under the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, is located in the north of Rome. The Casino Algardi in the Villa Doria Pamphilj and the Villa Madama are used for representation purposes (however, the Villa Madama belongs to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs).

Name and story

The term “Council of Ministers Presidium” was adopted from France , where it had been in use since 1815 and then disappeared with the semi-presidential system of the Fifth Republic . Even Austria-Hungary and other countries knew or know the name.

The history of the Italian Presidency of the Council of Ministers goes back to the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont . From 1848 this kingdom was at the forefront of the Italian unification movement , into which the old Italian states were incorporated in 1861 and which thus took on the name Kingdom of Italy .

Due to the revolution of 1848 , King Karl Albert issued a constitution ( Statuto Albertino ), which remained the Italian constitution until 1946. According to the constitution of 1848, the executive was with the king and the ministers who together made up the government. A prime minister did not include the Constitution, nor the confidence of Parliament dependent government. Nevertheless, the Savoy, as constitutional monarchs, allowed both in so-called “Liberal Italy” until 1925.

Due to the lack of constitutional status and its own administrative structure and because of the dependence on the king and parliament, the prime minister had a very weak position at the time. For this reason, until the fascist dictatorship, he mostly had his office in the powerful Ministry of the Interior . Often the offices of prime minister and minister of the interior were even held in personal union, with the prime minister using, among other things, the minister's stationery. The entire government stayed in Turin until 1865 , when the capital was relocated, it then moved to Florence until 1870 and then to Rome. Here the Prime Minister usually had his official seat at the Ministry of the Interior in Palazzo Braschi (pronounced: Braski ) on Piazza Navona .

After the March on Rome , Benito Mussolini moved his official seat and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Palazzo Chigi in 1922 . In 1925, Mussolini eliminated the democratic state and wrestled King Victor Emmanuel III. passed a law in which the office of “Head of Government, Prime Minister and State Secretary” was given a legal basis for the first time, which, among other things, provided for a generous authority to issue directives . Even with the founding of the unconstitutional Fascist Grand Council and Mussolini's move to the monumental Palazzo Venezia in 1929, not much changed in the lack of administrative framework in the office of the head of government.

After Mussolini's overthrow in July 1943, the Prime Minister returned with his office to the Ministry of the Interior, which has been based on the Viminal since 1925 . The Presidency of the Council of Ministers stayed here until 1961 and again relied on the resources and structures of the Ministry of the Interior. After the Ministry of Foreign Affairs moved out of the Palazzo Chigi in 1959 , the Presidency of the Council of Ministers was established there after renovation work in 1961. Since that time it has developed into an independent organization that was brought up to date by the reforms of 1988 and 1999.

See also

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