Enrico Letta
[4] After the 2013 Italian general election produced an inconclusive result, and following negotiations between party leaders, President Giorgio Napolitano gave him the task of forming a national unity government (Letta Cabinet), composed of Letta's PD, the centre-right The People of Freedom (PdL), and the centrist Civic Choice, in order to mitigate the economic and social crises engulfing Italy as a result of the Great Recession.[11] Following his resignation, Letta initially retired from politics, leaving Italy to accept appointment as dean of the School of International Affairs at Sciences Po in Paris.[34] In 2004, Letta was elected member of the European Parliament, with nearly 179,000 votes, within The Olive Tree list,[35] joining the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) group.[46] Moreover, Letta's faction was composed by politicians considered close to Prime Minister Romano Prodi, a Christian leftist professor and founding father of the Italian centre-left.[47][48] However, Letta had to face the politician who, more than any other, had worked to the formation of the Democratic Party and who was unanimously considered the future leader of the centre-left, Walter Veltroni, the incumbent Mayor of Rome.[51] During the leadership election of 2009, Letta supported the eventual winner, the social-democrat Pier Luigi Bersani, being appointed Deputy Secretary by the party's national convention.[52] In June 2010, Letta organized a three-day meeting in Verona, during which he met, within its association, entrepreneurs and key leaders of Lega Nord, the largest party in Veneto and eastern Lombardy.Close behind, the new anti-establishment Five Star Movement of comedian Beppe Grillo became the third-strongest force, clearly ahead of the centrist coalition of outgoing Prime Minister Mario Monti.[62] After his re-election, Napolitano immediately began consultations with the chairmen of the Chamber of Deputies, Senate and political forces, after the failure of the previous attempt with Bersani, 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.[63] On 27 April, Letta formally accepted the task of leading a grand coalition government, with support from the centre-left Democratic Party, the centre-right People of Freedom (PdL) of Silvio Berlusconi and the centrist Civic Choice of outgoing PM Mario Monti.[66] The attacker, Luigi Preiti, was stopped and arrested; he declared that he wanted to kill politicians or at least to hit a "symbol of politics" and that he was forced by despair being unemployed and recently divorced.[69] In his first speech in front of the Parliament, Letta stressed "necessity to restore decency, sobriety and a sense of honour"; he also advocated for a reduction of politics' costs.[71] To face this issue, on 14 June 2013, Letta scheduled a summit at Chigi Palace with the ministers of the economy, finance and labour of Italy, Germany, France and Spain, to agree on common EU policies for reducing unemployment.[8] After a few weeks, during a press conference at the conclusion of the Council of the European Union in Brussels, Letta announced that Italy would receive 1.5 billion euros in EU funds to fight youth unemployment.[75] As a result of the Libyan and Syrian Civil Wars, a major problem faced by Letta upon becoming prime minister in 2013 was the high levels of illegal immigration to Italy.[90] On 28 September 2013, five ministers of The People of Freedom resigned on the orders of their leader, Silvio Berlusconi, pointing to the decision to postpone the decree that prevented the increase of the VAT from 21 to 22%, thus opening a government crisis.[92] In the following days, dozens of members of PdL prepared to defy Berlusconi and vote in favour of the government, prompting him to announce that he would back the Prime Minister.[103] On 26 January 2014, the Minister of Agriculture, Nunzia De Girolamo, resigned from her post due to claims of improper conduct linked to a scandal in the local healthcare system of her hometown, Benevento.[106] On 8 December 2013, the Mayor of Florence, Matteo Renzi, won the Democratic Party leadership election by a landslide, immediately starting rumours about the possibility of becoming the new prime minister.[107] On 17 January 2014, while on air at Le invasioni barbariche on La7 TV channel, interviewed about tensions between him and Prime Minister Letta, Renzi tweeted the hashtag #enricostaisereno ("Enrico don't worry") to reassure his party colleague that he was not plotting anything against him.[109] At a PD's meeting on 13 February 2014, the Democratic Party leadership voted heavily in favour of Renzi's motion for "a new government, a new phase and a radical programme of reforms".But, without directly proposing himself as the next prime minister, he said the Eurozone's third-largest economy urgently needed "a new phase" and "radical programme" to push through badly-needed reforms.[113] In 2015, Letta resigned as a member of the Chamber of Deputies, after having voted against the new electoral law proposed by Prime Minister Renzi; at the same time, he announced that he would not renew the PD's membership.[152] On the morning of 29 January, after the fall of all other possible candidacies, Letta asked the other leaders to follow "the Parliament's wisdom", referring to the massive support that Mattarella had received in the previous ballots.[159] On the same day, Letta stressed that a government crisis needed to be officially opened in the Parliament, adding that "Italy deserved to stand with a strong personality like that of PM Draghi and the team that was around him."[160] However, on 21 July, Draghi resigned again after a new confidence vote in the Senate failed to pass with an absolute majority, following the defections of M5S, Lega, and Forza Italia;[161][162] A snap election was called for 25 September 2022.
Prime Minister of ItalyGiorgio NapolitanoDeputyAngelino AlfanoMario MontiMatteo RenziSecretary of the Democratic PartyIrene TinagliPeppe ProvenzanoNicola ZingarettiElly SchleinPier Luigi BersaniDario FranceschiniDebora SerracchianiLorenzo GueriniSecretary of the Council of MinistersRomano ProdiGianni LettaMinister of Industry, Commerce and CraftsMassimo D'AlemaGiuliano AmatoAntonio MarzanoMinister for the Community PoliciesLamberto DiniPatrizia ToiaChamber of DeputiesLombardyMarcheLombardy IILombardy IPiedmont IMember of the European ParliamentNorth-East ItalyTuscanyAlma materUniversity of PisaSant'Anna School of Advanced Studiesgrand coalitioncentre-leftcentre-rightleaderDemocratic PartyMinister of Industry, Commerce, and Crafts2013 Italian general electionnational unity governmentLetta CabinetThe People of FreedomCivic ChoiceGreat RecessionEuropean Unionyouth unemploymentparty subsidiesItalian politicspublic funds2015 European migrant crisis2013 Lampedusa migrant shipwreckMediterranean SeaOperation Mare NostrumSilvio BerlusconiSchool of International AffairsSciences PoelectedIE UniversitySchool of Politics, Economics and Global AffairsAbruzzoprobability theoryLincean AcademyNational Academy of the SciencesSassariPorto TorresItalian Red CrossStrasbourgliceo classicopolitical scienceGraduate SchoolUniversity Carlo CattaneoVareseHEC ParisMinister of IndustryDemocratic Party Secretary2007 leadership electionLettiani360 Association2013 electionEuropean debt crisisMigrant crisis2013 Lampedusa shipwreck2021 by-election2022 presidential election2022 government crisis2022 general electionJacques Delors InstituteChristian DemocracycentristRoman CatholicYouth of the European People's PartyEuropean People's PartyEuropean political partyChristian democraticEuropean integrationCiampi CabinetCarlo Azeglio CiampiBeniamino Andreattathink tankItalian People's PartyMinistry of Treasurycabinet2001 Italian general electionDemocracy is Freedom – The DaisyThe Olive TreeAlliance of Liberals and Democrats for EuropeCommittee on Economic and Monetary AffairsMaghrebArab Maghreb Unionre-electedsecond governmentClemente Mastella2008 Italian general electionBerlusconi IV Cabinet2007 Democratic Party (Italy) leadership electionDemocrats of the Leftleadership electionopen primaryYouTubeWikipediaFrancesco Cossiga