It's official now. They will start on Thursday 20th October the consultations for the formation of the new government. Although the center-right has not yet found the balance on the distribution of ministries and the excesses of Silvio Berlusconi disturb (and not a little) the Premier in pectore Giorgia Meloni, behind the scenes the process goes on. The government will do. Italy, on the other hand, cannot afford to waste time. Too many hot dossiers to deal with, starting with expensive bills, inflation and the budget law.
Ma what are the stages which will lead to the birth of the new Executive e what times? Let's see them one by one.
Step number one: consultations
After the formation of the parliamentary groups of the Chamber and Senate and the election of the respective presidents, the Quirinale will publish in the evening the calendar of consultationsscheduled for Thursday and Friday. The official process will open with a note read by the general secretary of the Quirinale Ugo Zampetti who will open the doors of the Studio della Vetrata, where the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella will hold talks with the various delegations. The Head of State will meet the presidents of the Chamber and Senate, will speak (on the phone) with the president emeritus, Giorgio Napolitano, and with party leaders and related group leaders. All should be concluded in the afternoon of Friday 21th October.
Stage number two: the assignment and the ok with reserve
Given the election result, Friday night or, at the latest, on Saturday morning Mattarella will confer the task to form the new government to the leader of the Brothers of Italy Giorgia Meloni, but first we will have to wait for the return of the outgoing Premier Mario Draghi from Brussels, where he will participate in his last European Council on Thursday and Friday. By practice and custom the appointed Premier accept the assignment "with reserve". Only 4 times has the prime minister said yes, renouncing the reserve formula, the last in 2008, when Berlusconi was appointed by President Giorgio Napolitano.
Stage number three: consultations with the appointed Premier
At this point, the Premier in charge will begin own round of consultations with the parties that intend to support it and be part of the new government. In this case, therefore, Meloni will speak with Lega, Forza Italia and Noi Moderati, the three parties with which the Brothers of Italy presented themselves at the polls. Given the advantage with which the center-right won the elections, if Berlusconi and Meloni manage to agree, the talks should last a short time and it will be possible to move on to the next stage.
Stage number four: the dissolution of the reserve and the list of ministers
If the talks with the other center-right parties are unsuccessful, there will be talk of a negative dissolution of the reserve and the Head of State will be forced to repeat the consultations to find a new figure to whom to entrust the task and, in the event that this is not possible, it will again proceed with the dissolution of the Chambers. Virtually unrealistic assumption on this occasion.
Despite skirmishes and tug of war, all predictions agree that Meloni will be able to come to an agreement with the other forces in his coalition. So he will come back to the Quirinale to dissolve the reserve and will be officially named Prime Minister, the first woman in the history of Italy. After the conversation with Mattarella, directly from the Quirinale, the new Premier will read the list of ministers. All this could happen already in the course of the day Saturday.
Step number five: the oath
If everything goes smoothly, the new government could swear already on Saturday and in any case not later than Monday. At that point Meloni will go to Palazzo Chigi where Draghi will give her the bell, the trill of which marks the beginning of the Council of Ministers.
Stage number six: trust in the Government
The last scheduled stop will be confidence. The premier will present herself to the Chambers to ask for trust. The process provides for this to happen within 10 days of being appointed, but given the will to hurry, it is thought that Meloni could go to Parliament already on 25 and 26 October. After the cut in the number of parliamentarians, 201 votes in favor in the Chamber and 104 in the Senate will be needed to obtain confidence. Once the trust has been won, the new government will be fully functional exactly one month after the elections.
