Governments “away” from Mussolini to Meloni

When we think of the Council of Ministers, Palazzo Chigi immediately comes to mind, in the large square in the center of Rome, with the column dedicated to Marcus Aurelius to celebrate the victories in the Marcomannic Wars.

But then how is it possible that the next Council of Ministers will be held in the municipal hall of Cutro on Thursday?

In truth, no law or decree requires that the Council be held in Palazzo Chigi or even that it be held in Rome.

Indeed, in the history of the Italian Republic, it is only since 1961 that the Government has its seat in Palazzo Chigi, because until 1961 the Prime Minister was at the Interior Ministry, together with the Minister of the Interior. And it was precisely from the Interior Ministry that Alcide De Gasperi proclaimed the Republic in June 1946.

Moreover, during the war years the Council of Ministers had left Rome for years. After the disastrous 8 September 1943, the Southern Kingdom had moved to Brindisi, resuming activities at the end of October, even if with many Undersecretaries, given that almost all the ministers had remained in Rome (as witnessed by 30 October 1943, n. 1/B, with which the participation of Undersecretaries in the Council of Ministers was permitted in place of the holders). The Badoglio Government moved to Salerno in February 1944 and then handed over to the Bonomi II Government which finally returned to Rome on 15 July 1944, after the King’s Lieutenant had signed and promulgated the so-called Provisional Constitution in Campania (Rodlgt. 25 June 1944, No. 151, which will lead to the Constituent Assembly and the Referendum of June 2, 1946).

Instead, the government of the Social Republic, after an initial brief founding meeting at the German Embassy in Rome (!), held its first Council of Ministers, presided over by Mussolini, on 27 September 1943 at the Rocca delle Caminate (Forlì), to then settle on the Lake Garda.

Let’s go back to our day. It is common for a Council of Ministers to be held in the Palace of the Chamber of Deputies or the Senate in December, when in the middle of the finance law, a resolution by the Council of Ministers is needed to place confidence or refine the maxi-amendment. But in recent years Councils of Ministers have often been held outside Rome. Many remember when Prodi met the Council of Ministers at the Royal Palace of Caserta to define the government lines on 11 January 2007 and the CDM was also open to party leaders; it was an opportunity for Marco Pannella to connect with his cell phone and broadcast everything live on Radical Radio, amidst the insults of Antonio di Pietro. Even if no one ever understood why Prodi chose Caserta and not just any Roman palace for that summit.

Quite different was when, due to the waste emergency, the Berlusconi IV government twice held the CDM in Naples, precisely on 5 May and 10 October 2008. As it was also the following year in L’Aquila on 23 April 2009, for witness the government presence in the earthquake crater. The same happens on 28 January 2010 in Reggio Calabria. Just where Giuseppe Conte will return on April 18, 2019 for another Council of Ministers, for the health emergency in Calabria.

A curiosity. It’s not just the Italian institutions that are leaving the buildings of the capital. In France, the Conseil constitutionnel has been holding hearings outside the Palais Royal in Paris for a couple of years now. And so last February 21 he held his eighth hearing “hors de ses murs” meeting in Bordeaux.

But power always remains firmly in the palaces of the capital. Unlike what some Roman emperors tried to do, who preferred to rule away from the City, as was the case for Tiberius in Capri or Hadrian in Tivoli.

*Professor of constitutional law at RomaTre University