Moments ago, Italy's Enrico Letta announced that after several days of negotiations he has enough support to form a government which will see Letta as Prime Minister, while one of Silvio Berlusconi's closest allies, Angelino Alfano, of Berlusconi's PDL, would become deputy prime minister and interior minister, in effect guaranteeing Bunga immunity from any and all political and criminal prosecutions for as long as the government is in power.
Reuters also informs that "Bank of Italy director general Fabrizio Saccomanni will take the powerful economy ministry and former European Commissioner Emma Bonino will be foreign minister, Letta said after meeting President Giorgio Napolitano. The government will be sworn in at 1030 BST on Sunday and Letta is expected to go before parliament to seek a vote of confidence on Monday."
In other words, the new Italian government will cover all bases: it will be anti-austerity as per Letta campaign to give the people hope that things may get better as much more debt is issued, Berlusconi will be safe and sound, which was his only real mandate, and the Italian Banks will remain in the good graces of the ECB as the link between the financial sector (which has been buying up record amounts of Italian sovereign debt) and the nation becomes inextricably linked, something Europe once upon a time tried to avoid but no longer pretends to even care.
And heading it all, a technocrat who is Chairman of the Aspen Institute Italy.
In short: nothing changes.
The only question is how much more debt will Italy now ramp up as all fiscal prudence is left behind and the insane debt spending frenzy that got Europe insolvent in the first place is rerun all over again.
A full list of Letta's proposed ministers from La Repubblica:
- AngelinoAlfano- Interior Ministerand DeputyPrime Minister
- AnnamariaCancellieri- Minister of Justice
- EmmaBonino - Minister of Foreign Affairs
- MarioMauro - Minister of Defense
- Gaetano Quagliariello - Minister ofConstitutional reforms
- AndreaOrlando- Minister of Environment
- GrazianoDelrio- Minister of Regional Affairs
- DarioFranceschini- Ministerfor relations withthe parliament
- BeatriceLorenzin- Ministry of Health,
- EnzoMoaveroMilanesi- Ministryof European Affairs
- NunziaDe Girolamo - Minister of Agricultural policies
- MassimoBray- Minister of Cultural Heritage
- CharlesTrigilia- Minister of Territorial cohesion
- JosefaIdem- MinisterEqual Opportunities andSport
- Maria ChiaraCarrozza- MinisterEducation
- EnricoGiovannini- Minister of Labourand Social Policy
- Flavio Zanonato- Ministerof Economic Development
- FabrizioSaccomanni - Ministerof Economy
- Maurizio Lupi - Minister of Infrastructure
- CécileKyenge- Ministerof Integration