Both Germany and Italy enjoy a streamlined parliamentary system. Weaker in the second case than in the first: this means that the Italian Constitution intervenes in very limited terms in defining the stability of the relationship of trust between Parliament and the Government, and little with regard to the political solvency of the Executivewhich needs to be invested by both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, although a vote of no confidence by one of the chambers is enough to overthrow him.
This is how the second government of roman prodi at the beginning of 2008. A system, in any case, prone to instability, as the 160 years of unitary Italy have been responsible for demonstrating, with the exception, not at all democratic, of the two decades of fascism.
In phases of particular agitation, it may happen that the parties decide not to commit themselves explicitly to a political alliance, placing their trust in a government with a declaredly transitory role. Are waiting favorable times to agree and thus be able to create a majority capable of lastingly sustaining a clear political direction.
Meanwhile, they leave the reins of the country in the hands of governments whose main tasks consist of clean up public accounts, guarantee international commitments of the country and pave the way for the holding of the next elections. In short: finish the legislature in a calm atmosphere. There have been interim governments made up exclusively of politicians, such as those headed by Amintore Fanfani in 1982 and in 1987.
Plus, the trend that has prevailed over the last three decades is that of technical governments, that is, presided over by prestigious figures outside the parliamentary world that they have never been anointed by universal suffrage, in a way to make their political neutrality as explicit as possible. The Constitution of 1948, in its articles from 92 to 96, does not contemplate in any case the obligation to choose neither the prime minister nor the ministers among the parliamentarians.
plus that does not mean that there are no politicians in governments technicians. In fact, they were the majority in the first executive of these characteristics, constituted in the spring of 1993 and chaired by the until then governor of the Bank of Italy, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, figure of consensus where there were, because years later, in 1999, he was elected president of the Republic by the chambers. In his government, the independents were a minority. Plus the figure of Ciampi, fully civil servant, gave it a technical qualification. It lasted a little less than a year, until the elections were called, which gave victory to Silvio Berlusconi.
The next government to be described as technical was the one that presided over Lamberto Dini between January 1995 and May 1996 as a result, precisely, of the forced resignation of a Berlusconi abandoned by his ally Umberto Bossi, leader of the Northern League. Dini, a senior official with experience in the International Monetary Fund and the Bank for International Settlements -which he came to preside-, was Treasury Minister with Berlusconibut he was not a member of any formation and had never, until then, been elected by the voters.
Who best embodies the figure of the “technical ruler” is Mario MontiPresident of the Council of Ministers between 2011 and 2013. Firstly, because of his career: European Commissioner for eight years, senior executive at Goldman Sachs, it can be said that he was put in office by the financial markets and by Brussels, before the Berlusconi’s inability to put an economic situation right engaged. Second, because of the almost exclusively technocratic composition of his government. However, it was the technical executive that lasted the longest: a year and a half.
to the government headed by Mario Draghi between 2021 and 2022 it can be considered a “crossover” between a political executive (specifically, of national unity) and a technical one, as it is headed by an independent and partly made up of politicians (expression of almost all the parties present in parliament ) and partly by technicians.
All the technical governments of Italy, always invested by large majorities, complied with their initial commitments. Its mere existence betrays the inability of the political class to rise to the occasion.
