by Amanda Esteves, Adriana Basti, Lola Harney, Tabatha Johnston, Thomas Marra, Peter Mezey, Nasim Mirzai, Stephanie Silva, Katharine Thornton, Nathan Verrilli, Tara Wilson

Many things happened over this long weekend. While Italy celebrated its 68th Anniversary of the Liberation form the Nazis, Enrico Letta, appointed by President Napolitano to form a new cabinet, consulted with all political forces in parliament to form a government representing a large parliamentary majority.

It looks like Letta finally succeeded in his task: a new cabinet, composed by ten Democratic Party members, five People of Freedom Party members, three members form Mario Monti’s coalition, one from the Radical Party (Emma Bonino), and four “technicians”, that is, professionals not coming from politics, among whom there is Anna Maria Cancellieri, former Minister of Interior in Monti’s cabinet and current Minister of Justice (check out THe Wall Street Journal’s article on Enrico Letta’s cabinet).

While the new cabinet was attending the swearing-in ceremony a man opened fire in front of Palazzo Chigi, the building where Italian cabinets traditionally hold their meetings and where the new cabinet was expected to come right after the ceremony. Two military police officers and a passer-by were wounded in the shooting. The shooter, immediately arrested, is Luigi Preiti, an unemployed man from Calabria region. Under interrogation, he declared that his original intention was to strike politicians.

All political forces condemned the act of violence, while a great part of Italian political debate focused on how the rift between politics and citizens has deepened and on how the fragility of Italian current political and economic situation increased the sense of frustration and despair among the population.

Today Enrico Letta’s cabinet will be submitted to a vote of confidence in parliament: it will probably have the support of the PD, the PDL and Monti’s coalition, while Five Star Movement and Nichi Vendola’s party (Left Ecology Freedon, SEL) will oppose it.

We’ll see if this new cabinet will succeed in pursuing its political agenda, that has among his first task the revision of the tax on real estate (Imposta Municipale Unica) and some political and institutional reforms.

To whom will Napolitiano give the task of government today? We still don’t know, but the choice is between Giuliano Amato and Enrico Letta.

In addition to Napolitano’s announcement, newspapers are outlining the possible future members of the cabinet: some may be former ministers of Monti’s cabinet, some may be outstanding politicians, but many others may not have a political background, coming from the institutional, academic or professional world.

Yesterday a meeting of Democratic Party leadership (Direzione Nazionale) took place in Rome. Bersani confirmed his resignation and the party approved a document that officially states the PD’s support for president Napolitano’s efforts to form a cabinet.

In other important news, for the first time, although not openly stated, there was a general consensus for Matteo Renzi as a possible PD candidate to lead the government. though Napolitano found more support for Enrico Letta and Giuliano Amato, Mayor Renzi, as Corriere della Sera reports, was very satisfied with the course of the meeting, because this traces the path for a better relationship with the other party members and possibly to a future leadership.

Giorgio Napolitano yesterday delivered his acceptance speech after the traditional pledge that the president of the republic takes when he’s elected.

Napolitano’s speech was very straightforward and at times even moving. He stated that despite his numerous appeals politicians behaved irresponsibly in the last years, and that the disastrous performance of the previous joint session voting before his election was the direct outcome of this irresponsibility. An article in Corriere della Sera interestingly notes that all politicians in attendance (except Five Star Movement deputies and senators) cheered as if the president was blaming someone else, and not them, for the situation.

He said that he accepted only due to his respect and devotion to the Italian republic.

Napolitano accepted to have a second term only on condition that political forces will be able to form a new cabinet as soon as possible.

Today Napolitano will have consultations with all political parties in Parliament in order to form a new cabinet as soon as possible. La Stampa reports on Napolitano’s schedule for today: he will first meet this morning with both the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Laura Boldrini, and with the President of the Senate, Pietro Grasso. The meeting between the president and the Democratic Party’s delegation will end this day of consultations.

Meanwhile, La Stampa reports also that Mayor Renzi expressed in a note to the president his willingness to become the head of the cabinet in case it’s needed.

La Repubblica reports that Beppe Grillo expressed his opposition to Napolitano’s election, saying that this will prevent the dissolution of the Italian traditional political structure, protecting Berlusconi and other politicians that are guilty of the problems that the country is now facing.

Napolitano emphasized the need for bi-partisan cooperation especially during this time of economic difficulty in Italy.

He called for political leaders to work together, to form a government for the good of the country and reminded political leaders that their primary responsibility is to the people, not the political parties.

As we expected on Friday, we now have a new president of the Italian republic.

Giorgio Napolitano, the former president, accepted to guide the country for a second term (though he imposed conditions for his acceptance on Bersani, Berlusconi and Monti some). For the first time since the foundation of the Italian republic will have a second.

The problem of finding a new president is now solved. Nevertheless, politicians and the Italian people feel like the current problems are far from being solved, and instead are getting complicated. Why? This question has many answers.

1) The Democratic Party is getting very close to dissolution. Many of its outstanding members have been politically destroyed: first of all, Pierluigi Bersani, the party leader, resigned last Friday (check out Reuter’s article on Bersani’s resignations). Bersani resigned because he didn’t manage to consolidate the support of his party. Franco Marini and Romano Prodi, who he had proposed as potential candidates for the presidency, didn’t gather the support of a large portion of the party. But now Bersani’s fiercest opponents fear the consequences of his resignation: the party’s dissolution.

2)Beppe Grillo comes out as the political winner of this situation. Again, his accusations against the traditional political class turned out (at least on the surface) to be plausible, because effectively these elections appeared to be dominated by the interests of politicians and not by people’s needs. As in the general elections, other political forces committed a mistake with the Five Stat Movement by completely bypassing their candidate for the presidency, Stefano Rodotà. Traditional political forces excluded M5S from the decision-making process, allowing them to continue to play on the level of political propaganda, where they are stronger than anyone else.

3) One of Napolitiano’s conditions to agree to a second term was the formation of a new cabinet supported by a large majority of the parliament. Bersani, Berlusconi and Monti were “forced” to accept this condition in order to end the stalemate and have a new president of the republic, but this obviously will further alienate voters from their parties.

As we observed at the beginning of this post, one issue as been resolved but many other issues have been raised during the weekend.