Title: The Formation of the Monti Government and the Role of the President of the Republic
Abstract: On Saturday 12 November 2011, after the approval of the budget and the stability law, the prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, who had led the government for the longest period in the history of the Italian Republic, formally resigned. Twenty-four hours later, the president of the Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, invited Mario Monti, whom he had made a Life Senator just four days earlier, to form the next government. An academic and president of the Bocconi University in Milan, Monti had been the European commissioner chosen by the Berlusconi government in 1994 and reappointed by the Massimo D’Alema center-left government in 1999. On 16 November, having accepted the president’s nomination, Monti presented a list of ministers, none of whom were members of Parliament, and they were all sworn in on that very day. Thus, one of the shortest government crises ever was resolved in less than three days.