Prime Minister Enrico Letta Dissolved 16 November 2013 | Founded 28 April 2013 | |
Political position Centre-left (PD)
Centre (SC, UdC)
Centre-right (PdL) | ||
The Grand coalition (Italian: Grande coalizione), also known as Government of broad agreements (Italian: Governo di larghe intese), was a political coalition in Italy formed on 28 April 2013 in support of the government of Enrico Letta.
Contents
Letta, a member of the Democratic Party, led a supermajority government, one of the largest in the history of the Italian Republic, but then lost the support of the centre-right People of Freedom (PdL), its main coalition partner. He endured at Palazzo Chigi thanks to the support of a group of splinters from the PdL who formed New Centre-Right (NCD). Nonetheless, this was considered the end of the Grand Coalition.
Composition
The Letta Cabinet was supported by the following parties:
Formation
On 24 April 2013, the Vice-Secretary of the Democratic Party Enrico Letta was invited to form a government by President Giorgio Napolitano, after the resignation of Pier Luigi Bersani following weeks of political deadlock following the 2013 general election. On 27 April Letta formally accepted the task of leading a grand coalition, with support from the centre-left Democratic Party (of which he stays Deputy Secretary), the centre-right People of Freedom, and the centrist Civic Choice, and subsequently listed the members of his Cabinet. The government he formed became the first in the history of the Republic to include representatives of all the major candidate-coalitions that had competed the election. His close relationship with his uncle Gianni Letta, one of Silvio Berlusconi's most trusted advisors, was perceived as a way of overcoming the bitter hostility between the two opposing camps. Letta appointed Angelino Alfano, secretary of the People of Freedom, as his Deputy Prime Minister. He was formally sworn-in as Prime Minister on 28 April; during the ceremony, a man fired shots outside Palazzo Chigi and wounded two Carabinieri.
On November 2013 Silvio Berlusconi announced the reborn of Forza Italia, in opposition to the government. A group of more than sixty deputies of PdL, led by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior Angelino Alfano, founded on 17 November a political force named New Centre-Right in support of Letta Cabinet.