Conservative leader Silvio Berlusconi formed Italy’s
62nd postwar government on Wednesday, CNN reports.
It appears Berlusconi will be in charge of a Cabinet that
includes longtime allies and some new faces. Franco Frattini, the outgoing EU
Justice commissioner, would serve as foreign minister while Giulio Tremonti was
named finance minister. Both return to posts they held in previous Berlusconi
governments.
The cabinet also includes Berlusconi’s closest aide, Gianni Letta, returned
to his job of Cabinet undersecretary, and Roberto Calderoli, a Northern League
official who caused an outcry two years ago when he showed up on TV wearing a
T-shirt of the Prophet Muhammad.
The Justice Ministry, another sensitive post given Berlusconi’s legal woes
and frequent attacks on Italian magistrates, went to another close aide,
Angelino Alfano, a top party official in Sicily. The 21 ministers Berlusconi has
chosen for his new Cabinet include longtime allies as well as some new faces.
It includes four women, none in a major post
The government will be sworn in on Thursday and will face a vote of
confidence in parliament, which is safely controlled by Berlusconi’s
conservative forces.
“I think what we have is a clear indication that Berlusconi is still in
charge,” said analyst Franco Pavoncello of Rome's
John Cabot University,
quoted by the International Herald Tribune. “It is a sign of Berlusconi’s power,”
he added.
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