Italy’s new government. Prodi’s team

Date: 20/05/06

A left-leaning government that may not last long

AS HE unveiled his government on May 17th, Italy's new prime minister, Romano Prodi, noted that it was "the same day [of] the same month" as ten years earlier, when he had named his first cabinet. There the similarities end.

His government may be the most left-leaning that Italy has ever had. Of its 26 members, one belongs to the Green party, which in Italy stands well to the left; two are communists; and nine (including the foreign minister, Massimo D'Alema) are Democrats of the Left, heirs to the former Italian Communist Party. As expected, the finance ministry will go to a distinguished independent, Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa. But the other main economic portfolios--industry, employment and transport--are all going to communists or ex-communists. That scarcely augurs well for the radical (ie, liberal) reforms that Mr Prodi's centre-left alliance had promised.

The prime minister, a mildly progressive former Christian Democrat, may have wanted a different outcome. But the communists and Greens made impressive gains in last month's election. Mr Prodi, who has a one-seat majority in the upper house of parliament, the Senate, is in no position to resist demands from smaller parties in his coalition.

In the tough bargaining that went into forming his government, at least two hopes were cast aside. Mr Prodi had wanted fewer ministers than his predecessor, Silvio Berlusconi. He ended up with two more (and five more than in 1996). He also vowed that a third of his team would be women. In fact, less than a quarter will be; and five of the six women in the team will be without a cabinet portfolio.

One of these second-class ministers is a spirited former European commissioner, Emma Bonino, who will be Europe minister. She had wanted the defence ministry. Her failure to get it shows the problems created for Mr Prodi by his narrow victory--and suggests that his government may not last all that long.

Some on the far left opposed Ms Bonino's appointment as defence minister on the grounds that she is not against war. But the real reason she was blocked is that another, newly powerful figure wanted the job. Clemente Mastella, a former Christian Democrat, leads a party on the right fringe of the governing coalition that took less than 1.5% of the vote. But it has three vital seats in the Senate. And in the past it has signalled that it is ready to desert the centre-left if its demands are not met.

To break the deadlock, Mr Prodi gave defence to a close associate, Arturo Parisi. But to pacify the troublesome Mr Mastella, he handed him the even more prestigious justice ministry. Mr Mastella expressed delighted surprise. As well he might: for he is utterly unsuitable. More than once, he has chided prosecutors for their impertinent curiosity about political corruption. Only three months ago he was questioned at the headquarters of the national anti-Mafia directorate about his friendship with a man who admitted to helping the Sicilian Cosa Nostra's former "boss of bosses", Bernardo Provenzano, when he was on the run.

Francesco Campanella, a town councillor in Sicily who turned state's evidence after being investigated, has acknowledged giving Mr Provenzano documents that helped him to go abroad for medical treatment. A year earlier, Mr Mastella was a witness at Mr Campanella's wedding.