The consultations of the President of the Republic
Once the leaders of the Parliament have been elected, the consultations of the Head of State will begin, who will call the group leaders, the leaders of the coalitions, the former presidents of the Chambers and the presidents emeritus of the Republic to the Quirinale to understand the orientations before entrusting the task to form the new executive.
“Full” or reserved assignment
If the post is full, as in 2001, the chosen one will present himself after a few days with a list of ministers. If he is “with reserve”, however, as happened with Carlo Cottarelli in 2018, the president in charge will, in turn, carry out consultations that will lead him to dissolve the reserve and to present the list of ministers to the Hill or to resign.
The hypothesis of an exploratory assignment
In the event that a clear picture does not emerge from the consultations, the Head of State will be able to entrust an “exploratory assignment” to a third person to see if a new majority can be created. A precedent, in this sense, always occurred in 2018 when Mattarella entrusted this type of assignment, first to the President of the Senate, Elisabetta Casellati, and then to that of the Chamber, Roberto Fico.
The list of ministers agreed with the Head of State
Once the person in charge has agreed the list of ministers with the Colle, the Government can swear an oath at the Quirinale and at that point it will consider itself formally installed. Then, however, within 10 days, he will have to ask for and obtain the trust of the two houses of Parliament.
After the trust, I rule in full power
And only after that, the Executive will be at the fullest of its powers. The Head of State could also oppose the appointment of a minister: it happened in 1994 with Oscar Luigi Scalfaro who said no to Cesare Previti to Justice or in 2014 when Giorgio Napolitano did not want to Nicola Gratteri, proposed by Matteo Renzi, in via Arenula. But also Mattarella opposed in 2018 the indication of Lega and M5S for Paolo Savona to the Economy. In short, there may be many unknowns, but emergencies, from the NRP to work issues, are pressing and soon require “concrete answers”, as the leader of SI Nicola Fratoianni reminds us.