Italy's newly appointed Premier
Paolo Gentiloni has kept on most of the same ministers seen in
the last government under Matteo Renzi.
Some 12 ministers will be continuing in the same role, while
one will switch roles (Angelino Alfano) and two others had been
undersecretaries. Anna Finocchiaro and Valeria Fedeli will be
new.
A Ministry for the Mezzogiorno (south), which had been urged
by many living in Italy's more disadvantaged southern regions,
will be a new element.
There will no longer be a minister for reforms, a role that
had been held by Maria Elena Boschi. Boschi had also been tasked
with relations with the parliament, which has now been handed
over to Anna Finocchiaro, who had been head of the
Constitutional affairs committee of the Senate.
Another change is at the ministry for education, where
Valeria Fedeli, deputy Senate speaker, will be taking the place
of Stefania Giannini. Fedeli, a former trade unionist with CGIL,
implies a slight shift to the left of the government.
Angelino Alfano will be moving from the interior ministry to
the foreign ministry and will be replaced by Marco Minniti, who
had been undersecretary to the prime minister tasked with
intelligence oversight, a role that will now remain in the
premier's hands.
A ministry without portfolio will be given to Claudio De
Vincenti, who will be leaving the post of undersecretary to the
prime minister to Boschi: he will be minister for the
Mezzogiorno and territorial cohesion, building on the experience
of Fabrizio Barca with Mario Monti's government.
The ministry for sport will be separated from the culture
ministry and given to Luca Lotti, who was undersecretary tasked
with publishing industry funds, as well as cabinet secretary,
under Renzi. He will be keeping this role, alongside one for the
Interministerial Economic Planning Committee (CIPE).
All the other ministers will be remaining in their positions:
Marianna Madia, Enrico Costa, Andrea Orlando, Roberta Pinotti,
Pier Carlo Padoan, Carlo Calenda, Maurizio Martina, Gianluca
Galletti, Graziano Delrio, Beatrice Lorenzin, Dario Franceschini
and Giuliano Poletti.
There will be five female ministers and 13 male ones plus
Gentiloni. Nevertheless, the government will have more females
than the Renzi one since Maria Elena Boschi, the former reforms
minister and new cabinet secretary, will be taking part in
cabinet meetings.
This is the first time that a woman will be holding this
role, which has been compared with that of Richelieu and has
been held by such key figures as Giannni Letta under Berlusconi
and Enrico De Micheli under Prodi.
The five female ministers will all be holding important
ministries, tasked with public administration, defense, health,
education and parliamentary relations.
Four of the ministers are from the Popular Area (AP)
centre-right group (Alfano, Costa, Lorenzin and Galletti), 11
are from the Democratic Party (PD), and others are not in the PD
parliamentary group but are of the same political area (Padoan,
Calenda, Poletti and De Vincenti).
Within the Democratic Party, the leaders remain those that
represent its internal majority: Andrea Orlando (Young Turks),
Dario Franceschini (Area Dem) and Maurizio Martina (Left and
Change); while Renzi backers include Luca Lotti and Maria Elena
Boschi, who are closest to the former premier, and Graziano
Delrio, the confirmed transport and infrastructure minister.
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