The New Government and the Spoils System

Abstract

On 17 May 2006, exactly 10 years after his first appointment as president of the Council of Ministers, Romano Prodi was sworn in at the Quirinale by the new president of the Republic, Giorgio Napolitano. At 9 PM of the same day, during the first meeting of the Council of Ministers, Prodi appointed the undersecretary to the presidency, ministers without portfolio, and other undersecretaries. He then formally attributed the functions of council vice-president to Massimo D'Alema, president of the Democratici di Sinistra (DS, Left Democrats), and Francesco Rutelli, president of the Margherita (Daisy). The second Prodi government presented itself at the Senate for a confidence vote on Friday, 19 May, obtaining 165 votes in favor and 155 against. On the following Monday, in the Chamber of Deputies, it was approved by 344 votes in favor and 268 against.1 The government team, including the prime minister and his vice-presidents, comprised a total of 102 individuals, a record number in the history of the Italian Republic. This resulted in heated debate and protests conducted in the press and television, which were kept alive for several days, above all by representatives of the opposition. As we will see in the following pages, the formation of the new executive led to a great deal of discussion as regards the unpackaging of ministries, which resulted in an increase in their number, with public opinion inevitably conditioned by fears that this mode of sharing out new posts responded to the mere logic of coalition politics and possibly