Date formed 28 April 2013 Head of state Giorgio Napolitano | Head of government Enrico Letta Total no. of ministers 22 | |
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Date dissolved 22 February 2014
(300 days) Member party Democratic Party (10)
New Centre-Right (5)
Civic Choice (1)
Union of the Centre (1)
Italian Radicals (1)
Populars for Italy (1)
Independents (3) | ||
The Letta cabinet was the sixty-second cabinet of the government of Italy announced on 27 April 2013. The cabinet was composed of members of the Democratic Party (PD), The People of Freedom (PdL), Civic Choice (SC), the Union of the Centre (UdC), one member of the Italian Radicals (Rad) and three non-party Independents. The cabinet was the youngest government of Italy until the forming of the Renzi Cabinet, with a median age of 53. The cabinet was sworn in on 28 April and won the confidence vote in both the Chamber of Deputies on 29 April and the Senate on 30 April. On 28 September Silvio Berlusconi announced that he was asking to the PdL's five ministers (Angelino Alfano, Maurizio Lupi, Gaetano Quagliariello, Beatrice Lorenzin and Nunzia De Girolamo) to resign from the government over a tax hike. On 15 November 2013, the PdL split. While Berlusconi re-founded the Forza Italia party, all five PdL ministers, led by Alfano, joined the New Centre-Right party. In the same week, another coalition partner, Civic Choice, suffered a split, with minister of defense Mario Mauro leaving the party and founding the new Populars for Italy. Nevertheless, he kept his ministry.
Formation and end
On 22 April 2013, the President of the Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, after his re-election, immediately started consultations with the chairmen of the Chamber of Deputies, Senate and political forces, after the failure of the previous attempt with Pier Luigi Bersani after the elections, and the establishment of a panel of experts by the President himself (dubbed as wise men by the press), in order to outline priorities and formulate an agenda to deal with the persistent economic hardship and growing unemployment.
On 24 April, Giorgio Napolitano gave to the vice-secretary of the Democratic Party, Enrico Letta, the task of forming a government, having determined that Pier Luigi Bersani, leader of the winning coalition Italy Common Good, could not form a government because it did not have a majority in the Senate. Enrico Letta is the successor of Mario Monti, who resigned on 21 December 2012 but whose government remained in charge for the ordinary administration until 28 April 2013, the day the new government was sworn in.
Letta's cabinet lasted until 22 February 2014 (for a total of 300 days), as the government fell apart after the Democratic Party retired its support of Letta in favour of Matteo Renzi, the 39-year-old mayor of Florence and nicknamed "Il Rottamatore" (the scrapper), who succeeded Letta as Prime Minister.