Berlusconi III Cabinet

Third Berlusconi cabinet
58th cabinet of Italy
Date formed	23 April 2005
Date dissolved	17 May 2006 (390 days)
People and organisations
Head of government	Silvio Berlusconi
Head of state	Carlo Azeglio Ciampi
Total number of ministers	24
Member party	Forza Italia (FI) National Alliance (AN) Union of Christian and Centre Democrats (UDC) Lega Nord Italian Republican Party (PRI) New Italian Socialist Party (NPSI)
History
Election(s)	2001 election
Outgoing election	2006 election
Legislature term(s)	31 May 2001 - 28 April 2006 (XIV)
Incoming formation	Berlusconi III Cabinet formation, 2005
Outgoing formation	Prodi II Cabinet formation, 2006
Predecessor	Berlusconi II Cabinet
Successor	Prodi II Cabinet

The Berlusconi III Cabinet was the cabinet of the government of Italy from 23 April 2005 to 17 May 2006. It was the 58th cabinet of the Italian Republic, and the second cabinet of the XIV Legislature.

Formation

House of Freedoms did not do as well in the 2003 local elections as it did in the 2001 national elections. In common with many other European governing groups, in the 2004 elections of the European Parliament, gaining 43.37% support. Forza Italia's support was also reduced from 29.5% to 21.0% (in the 1999 European elections Forza Italia had 25.2%). As an outcome of these results the other coalition parties, whose electoral results were more satisfactory, asked Berlusconi and Forza Italia for greater influence in the government's political line.

In the 2005 regional elections (3-4 April 2005), the centre-left gubernatorial candidates won in 12 out of 14 regions where control of local governments and governorships was at stake. Berlusconi's coalition kept only two of the regional bodies (Lombardy and Veneto) up for re-election. Three parties, Union of Christian and Centre Democrats, National Alliance and New Italian Socialist Party, threatened to withdraw from the Berlusconi government. The Italian Premier, after some hesitation, then presented to the President of the Republic a request for the dissolution of his government on 20 April 2005. On 23 April he formed a new government with the same allies, reshuffling ministers and amending the government programme. A key point required by the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats (and to a lesser extent by National Alliance) for their continued support was that the strong focus on tax reduction central to the government's ambitions be changed.

New electoral law

During this second cabinet was also approved a new electoral law. A white paper for a proportional-only electoral system was presented to the Chamber of Deputies on September 13, 2005, only seven months before the 2006 general election. This reform, strongly backed by the centre-right Union of Christian and Centre Democrats, proposed a 4% election threshold before a party gained any seats, and a majority bonus of (at least) 340 seats for the winning coalition, the total votes for each coalition being the sum of the votes of those coalition parties which had won at least 4% of the national votes. The new proposal was approved by parliament.^[1]

An electoral survey published on September 15, 2005 by the national left newspaper La Repubblica^[2] claimed that, with the initial proposal of electoral reform become law, the House of Freedoms would win the next elections 340-290, even if they won only 45% of votes and the opposition coalition The Union won 50%, because the Union also includes several small parties with less than 4% of national votes. This could have been avoided if the small opposition parties ran on a common ticket. Aim of this bill of reform was to reduce the number of parties, and particularly the moderate Left would have taken advantage in respect to the smaller radical left parties.

The Union of Christian and Centre Democrats, commenting on the proposal, asked for the abolition of the 4% cut-off clause, whereas the National Alliance did not show any favour to this attempt of reform, with its leader Gianfranco Fini claiming to want first to vote for the constitutional reform, and then for the new voting system, on condition that the 4% cut-off were not repealed.^[3]

This proposal of law was strongly questioned by the opposition coalition, who defined it an "attempted coup". Opposition leader Romano Prodi said it was "totally unacceptable".^[4] Several newspapers politically oriented to the left nicknamed the electoral system proposal by the House of Freedoms as "Truffarellum", after "truffa" (Italian for "fraud") and the "Mattarellum", (from Sergio Mattarella), the most common name for the previous Italian electoral law (there is a recent custom to nickname new electoral systems by a somewhat Latinised version of the name of the lawmaker; another one is the system used in regional elections, the so-called "Tatarellum" from Pinuccio Tatarella).

Notably, some smaller opposition parties, such as Communist Refoundation Party and UDEUR, support a proportional electoral law; nevertheless, they declared they were against an electoral reform by this parliament, because the current law would be changed too close to the 2006 general election.

The Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi had previously been a strong supporter of the plurality-based electoral law; in 1995, talking about his coalition, he even defined the plurality principle as "our religion".^[5]

A modified version of the first proposal, this time with a 2% threshold for entering Parliament and without vote of preference for candidates, but still without the support of the opposition, was presented to the Chamber of Deputies. The voting count started on October 11; the lower house of Italian parliament then approved the electoral reform on October 14.^[6] The new electoral was then eventually approved on December 16, 2005, and countersigned by President Ciampi on December 23, 2005.^[7]

Roberto Calderoli, the main author of this electoral reform, defined this law "a rascality" (using the mildly vulgar term "porcata").

Ironically, the new electoral law allowed Romano Prodi to count on a large majority in the Chamber and to obtain majority also in the Senate, where The House of Freedoms actually had more votes (49.88% vs. 49.18% of the Union).

Composition

Portfolio	Minister		Took office	Left office	Party
Prime Minister		Silvio Berlusconi	23 April 2005	17 May 2006	Forza Italia
Minister of Foreign Affairs		Gianfranco Fini	23 April 2005	17 May 2006	National Alliance
Minister of the Interior		Giuseppe Pisanu	23 April 2005	17 May 2006	Forza Italia
Minister of Economy and Finances		Domenico Siniscalco	23 April 2005	22 September 2005	Independent
		Giulio Tremonti	22 September 2005	17 May 2006	Forza Italia
Minister of Defense		Antonio Martino	23 April 2005	17 May 2006	Forza Italia
Minister of Justice		Roberto Castelli	23 April 2005	17 May 2006	Lega Nord
Minister of Productive Activities		Claudio Scajola	23 April 2005	17 May 2006	Forza Italia
Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry Policies		Gianni Alemanno	23 April 2005	17 May 2006	National Alliance
Minister of Education, University and Research		Letizia Moratti	23 April 2005	17 May 2006	Forza Italia
Minister of Labour and Social Affairs		Roberto Maroni	23 April 2005	17 May 2006	Lega Nord
Minister for Health		Francesco Storace	10 March 2006	17 May 2006	National Alliance
Minister of Infrastructures and Transports		Pietro Lunardi	23 April 2005	17 May 2006	Forza Italia
Minister of Environment and Protection of Land and Sea		Altero Matteoli	23 April 2005	17 May 2006	National Alliance
Minister of Cultural Heritage		Rocco Buttiglione	23 April 2005	17 May 2006	UDC
Minister of Communications		Mario Landolfi	23 April 2005	17 May 2006	National Alliance

Ministers without portfolio

Portfolio	Minister		Took office	Left office	Party
Minister European Affairs		Giorgio La Malfa	23 April 2005	17 May 2006	Republican Party
Minister of Reforms and Revolutions		Roberto Calderoli	23 April 2005	18 February 2006	Lega Nord
Minister of Public Administration and Innovations		Mario Baccini	23 April 2005	17 May 2006	UDC
Minister of Southern Italy		Gianfranco Miccichè	23 April 2005	17 May 2006	Forza Italia
Minister for Regional Affairs		Enrico La Loggia	23 April 2005	17 May 2006	Forza Italia
Minister for Platform Accomplishment		Stefano Caldoro	23 April 2005	17 May 2006	NPSI
Minister of Equal Opportunities		Stefania Prestigiacomo	23 April 2005	17 May 2006	Forza Italia
Minister of Parliament		Carlo Giovanardi	23 April 2005	17 May 2006	UDC
Minister of Italians in the World		Mirko Tremaglia	23 April 2005	17 May 2006	National Alliance

Sources

• Italian Government - Berlusconi III Cabinet

References

1. Pole Agrees to Go Back to Proportional Vote, Corriere della Sera
2. (Italian) Dalla vittoria alla sconfitta la riforma "scippa" l'Unione, La Repubblica
3. , Reuters
4. (Italian) Legge elettorale, accordo nella Cdl Unione insorge: "Blocchiamo le Camere", La Repubblica
5. (Italian) Nessun blitz prima delle elezioni, DS Milano
6. Italy deputies back voting reform, BBC News
7. (Italian) Ciampi ha firmato la legge elettorale, Corriere della Sera