For whom the bell rings: history of the ceremonial that marks the handover between premier

For whom the bell rings. Fifty-six years later Hemingway, venneno Prodi and Dini. It is May 1996, Romando Prodi, leader ofolivetook over from the Lamberto Dini, technician. Before, the transition took place inside the office of the Prime Minister where a meeting was held between the two prime ministers and the hottest and most urgent dossiers were discussed. Nobody saw anything. There was only one detail – he said Massimo Sgrellithe inventor of the rite and for over 15 years head of the Ceremonial Department of Palazzo Chigi – who noted: “The incoming was always more cheerful than the outgoing”.

The first step

The first time, in ’96, nobody noticed. The ceremony was sober and discreet. After that it became a show: a set is set up with journalists, photographers and cameramen. The band. The handover for ‘full functions’. A clerk delivers the golden bell on a tray and, with it, the new Prime Minister directs the meetings of the CDM in the Mappamondo room, in favor of cameras.

Letta, Renzi, Berlusconi and Conte

If the most blatant passage was the one between Enrico Letta (no longer serene) e Matteo Renzibetween mocking smiles and offended looks, the less sober were with Berlusconi, at times angry, at other times amused. Not even the rigid Mario Monti he managed to resist: he rang the bell amused and blatantly in front of the cameras with the resentful FI leader. As Prodi had been, when he smiled, elegantly but hiding his teeth, passing the bell to D’Alema.

The latest ceremonies

The passing of the baton between Giuseppe Conte And Mario Draghi in the midst of the Covid pandemic it was marked by amuchina. A year earlier it took place with an unprecedented formula: Prime Minister Conte for his encore decided not to give up the ringing, succeeding himself. Before, since ’96, since the bell rite has existed, there have been only two cases of head of government who have taken over from himself: Massimo D’Alemawho passed the baton from the first to his second government, in ’99, and Silvio Berlusconi, in the passage from bis to ter, in 2005. In both cases, however, there was silence. No one had rung the bell.