The crisis in Italy, at least the political crisis, has come to an end this morning at the Quirinal Palace.
The signature of Mario Draghi, the new prime minister, has certified the beginning of a new cycle in the great Hall of Parties of the old residence of the popes and current seat of the presidency of the Republic.
The turmoil ended and the challenge of rebuilding the country began, entrusted to a high-level team that excited the markets and the Italian business class.
After Draghi, the 23 ministers who will make up his Executive have been passing one by one.
Then, the new prime minister went to the seat of the Government to receive from the hands of his predecessor, Giuseppe Conte, the bell that usually starts the councils of ministers.
The ritual that confirms the birth of the new Executive.
The staging in the Quirinal Palace, with great care to preserve distances, allowed us to see for the first time the faces of some of the most unknown ministers.
Draghi has decided to entrust the management of the new Executive to 15 political ministers and eight technical profiles of great importance who, in some cases, were not known to each other.
This is the case of the new head of Justice, the former president of the Constitutional Court, Marta Cartabia.
Or the until now general director of the Bank of Italy, Daniel Franco, who will occupy the position of Economy (the
grillinos
know him well
because
of the old disputes that they had on account of the approval of the excess deficit).
Some of the 15 political incumbents repeat again in the Government.
Luigi Di Maio (M5S), is still at the Foreign Ministry.
Also Lorenzo Guerini (PD) in Defense or the Minister of Health (Free and Equal), Roberto Speranza.
The only minister who has managed to replace Matteo Renzi in representation of Italia Viva, Elena Bonetti, recovers the portfolio of Familia after having resigned a month ago.
None of the new holders, however, is the leader of his party, nor of the rest of the list, because Draghi wanted less marked profiles to preserve the fluidity of relations.
Almost no one knew until minutes before that he would be summoned by the new prime minister.
Things have changed enormously in Italy.
Il retroscena
, that very Italian journalistic genre that consists of publishing interested leaks, conversations without a tape recorder in front of them that languish throughout the day before reality, also gives the impression of coming to an end.
The number of political profiles is double that of technicians.
However, the portfolios that will have more weight in the remainder of the legislature - also those that will have command in the distribution of the 209,000 million euros in European funds - are those of senior officials or profiles from the business world.
Vittorio Colao, former CEO of the Vodafone group in the world, for example, will be the new Minister of Innovation and Digital Transition.
Gender parity is conspicuous by its absence.
Only eight of the 23 positions are held by women.
More flagrant is the quota of parties, where the Social Democrats of the Democratic Party (PD) have portfolios occupied exclusively by men.
Forza Italia, on the other hand, has only women in its three ministries.
Draghi held the first council of ministers on Saturday morning.
The appointment was preceded by the traditional handover of the bell that is used to start the meeting.
He received it from the hands of his predecessor, Giuseppe Conte, who set foot in the Chigi Palace for the last time.
The former prime minister received an unusual and moving applause from all the workers of the headquarters of the presidency of the Council of Ministers before disappearing through the door holding the hand of his partner, Olivia Paladino.
