Spoils system and public administration executives. The rumors that irritate Giorgetti and Meloni’s message to bureaucrats – Corriere.it

The countdown is at the final stages, because article 19, paragraph 8 of the Bassanini law on public administration of 2001 clear: managerial positions such as heads of ministries or agencies cease ninety days after the government’s vote of confidence. So silence here is tantamount to dismissal, not assent.

Yet certainly not silence to dominate, as the days go by that will expire on January 24th. On the Messenger Defense Minister Guido Crosetto
He spoke of using the machete even against those in administrations who stood out for their ability to say no. Anonymous government rumors let the media filter that the main candidate to lose his job would be Alessandro Rivera, for four and a half years director general of the Treasury. Even the relationships between Palazzo Chigi and State Accountant Biagio Mazzotta are cold, to the point that he has never been involved in meetings on the law of Bthe launch to the presidency of the Council: never happened before.

Giorgia Meloni gives a broader reading: I believe that the problem of the relationship between the bureaucratic machine and politics was fundamentally in the weakness of politics, said the prime minister a few days ago. The administrative machinery has always looked at the minister on duty or the president (of the Council, ed) as a bystander and in many cases took over. Consequently Meloni hoped a profound revision of the Bassanini law, which gives politicians the tools of their power (If I have the responsibility, I have it for better or for worse, he said). Therefore, if the law today allows rulers to replace the forty or so top managers, changing it can only mean one thing: broadening this spoils system at least at the band immediately below, another 400 executives. Just saying it sends a message – and maybe a shiver down the spine – to the structures.

Meanwhile the countdown is running. Nor can the government wait for January 24, because the Quirinale considers being informed in advance an elementary act of courtesy. An examination of the formal requirements of who will replace the managers left to lapse will have to take place at Colle, given that the President of the Republic enters the procedure: the position of top management conferred with his decree following a resolution by the Council of Ministers, on the proposal of the competent minister. There is for another reason why any change in the Ministry of Economy it interests the Quirinale, as well as the rest of Europe. The latest government to debut by sacking Treasury officials was that of Liz Truss in London last September: when Permanent Secretary to the Treasury Tom Scholar died, it was the first sign for the markets of the instability that would soon lead to the fall of the premier. In Italy the picture is different, to the extent that fiscal policy is prudent today. Antonino Turicchi, the president of Ita seen as a possible successor to Rivera, has a solid curriculum but so far much less experience outside Italy (especially in European negotiations). For Mazzotta, on the other hand, there are no obvious substitutes, even if the former Inail executive Giuseppe Lucibello seems close to the centre-right area.

But the other difference with the case Liz Truss politics: Tom Scholar’s jubilation took place with the assent of Treasury Minister Kwasi Kwarteng, while in Rome the (deliberately) public hunting season in Rivera was opened without the Minister of Economy. Giancarlo Giorgetti is not inclined to change either the State Accountant or the director general of the Treasury – not now – even if he thinks that the balance of power in the government is not on his side. He is a moderate minority in the League, a minority party in a government of the Brothers of Italy. Because here’s the point: Giorgetti sees in the ongoing attack on Rivera an attack on himself, an attempt by some government sectors to weaken and resize him. Under Christmas, sparks have already been seen in the Council of Ministers on a merit case between the owner of the Economy and his colleague Adolfo Urso (Enterprises, FdI), while the reports of Giorgetti with Crosetto (also from FdI) are marked by a healthy mutual suspicion. Then there is the action of the Minister of European Affairs Raffaele Fitto (FdI), who requests control at Palazzo Chigi on the part of the Accounting Department that follows the recovery plan. Everything is therefore stable in the government arrangements, at least until it will no longer be.