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March of the Technocrats: Italy’s Mario Monti’s Ministers

Italy Needs Mario Monti

The members of Mario Monti’s new government for Italy were revealed today.  Conspicuous by their absence from the Monti cabinet were politicians from the defunct Berlusconi government, although a couple of Monti’s ministers have shown themselves in the past to be somewhat Silvio Berlusconi friendly.  Their inclusion in Monti’s cabinet was probably a concession to Italy’s recently resigned ex-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Despite the homage paid to his predecessor, Italy’s new technocrat Prime Minister Mario Monti has chosen a cabinet made up of specialists.  Not only are the new ministers experts, they are also a mixture of personalities with, it seems, varied political leanings.  No bimbos though.

–> New for 2013 – information and profiles on the members of Italy’s Enrico Letta led government which succeeded Mario Monti’s technocrat regime <–

Here are the members of the new Italian cabinet and a little information on their known or suspected political leanings, plus a little on Mario Monti’s connections:

Right Wingers

Prime Minister and Economy Minister: Mario Monti – economist and key member of the secretive Bilderberg Group.  In view of his Bilderberg links, Monti’s politics are probably right wing.

Monti’s connections to the Bilderberg group or club are either interesting or frightening, depending on your point of view.  EU President Herman Van Rompuy has connections to Bilderberg, as does Jean-Claude Trichet, the head of the European Central Bank.

I was told by Richard Cottrell, a former journalist, politician, and author of the book Gladio: NATO’s Dagger At The Heart of Europe that Monti is a “very dangerous man”.  Yes, this claim raised my eyebrows too!

In Cottrell’s opinion, the Bilderberg Group of which Monti forms part has been undermining democracy for decades.  Those who have been observing Bilderberg group activities believe that the Norway massacre was engineered by the secretive club.

Both Italy’s former bunga bunga Prime Minister Berlusconi and Greece’s former premier were ousted in favour of Bilderberg group nominees, claims Cottrell.  That Berlusconi rolled over so rapidly and offered his support for Monti could be explained by his being told to be a good little boy by people who wield levels of power that media-manipulating Berlusconi can only dream of.

Another writer, Daniel Estulin, has been Bilderberg group watching for a good few years and Estulin believes Bilderberg is an extraordinary powerful organisation which is manipulating the geopolitical landscape to its own ends, primarily to create a new world order.  Spooky.  It has even been claimed that USA President Barack Obama was “approved” by the Bilderbergers.

The Bilderberg Group sounds like Italy’s P2, P3 and P4 secret societies on global steroids!  Read up on the Bilderberger club and draw your own conclusions.  You might like to start with Daniel Estulin’s best selling book: The True Story of the Bilderberg Group

Maybe my provocative claim that Mario Monti is a dictator was not so far off the mark!

Anyway, enough conspiracy theories, and on to the other possibly right-leaning members of Monti’s cabinet:

Minister of Tourism and Sport: Piero Gnudi – Past president of Italy’s energy giant, Enel.  Connections to Italy’s Confindustria employers’ federation, the Aspen Institute, and a privatisation supervisor.  Gnudi is a Unicredit bank board-member.  In view of his connections and roles, Gnudi is most probably a right winger politically.

Cultural Heritage Minister: Lorenzo Ornaghi – rector of the Catholic University of Milan and political science graduate.  Political leanings would appear to be to the right of centre in view of Orgnaghi’s “maestro” being the late Gianfranco Miglio, an exponent of the federalisation of Italy.  Ornaghi could be an attempt to keep the Monti government in the good books of the secessionist Lega Nord party.   Ornaghi is a practising catholic and member of the board of Avvenire, a well-known Roman Catholic magazine.  This means Ornaghi is also Pope-friendly.

Minister For European Affairs – without portfolio:  Enzo Moaveri Milanese has worked extensively with Italy’s new Prime Minister Mario Monti.  Former government advisor to the Amato and Ciampi administrations.  In view of his historic collaboration with Monti, Milanese probably leans to the political right.

Cabinet Under secretary: Antionio Catricala – a lawyer.  Appeared to be centre-left friendly initially, but was then turned out to be rather too friendly towards Berlusconi’s television empire.

Left Leaners

Interior Minister: Anna Maria Cancellieri – a kind of public sector troubleshooter who has been brought in to run troubled Italian cities, such as Parma and Bologna.  Reputedly a supporter of women’s rights, so I’ll label her as a left-winger.

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Health Minister: Renato Balduzzi – professor of constitutional law.  National director of Italy’s regional health services, even if that might sound as if it is a contradiction in terms.  Has worked with centre-left Italian governments in the past, so can be assumed to be left-leaning politically.  Undoubtedly an expert in his field.

Industry and Infrastructure Minister: Corrado Passera – a banker and head of Italy’s biggest bank, San Paolo.  Passera has made no secret of leaning towards the Italy’s centre-left.

Left and Right

Justice Minister: Paola Severino – a lawyer, and possibly left of centre friendly, seeing as one of her clients was former Italian Prime Minister, Romano Prodi.  Then again, her name also came up in conversation as a replacement for Angelino Alfano who was Italy’s justice minister before he resigned to take up a position as a Berlusconi PdL party official.

Defence Minister: Giampaolo Di Paola: Admiral, and NATO bigwig, Di Paola has been head of the Italy’s military’s Chiefs of Staff under both centre-right and centre-left governments.

Political Leanings Unknown or Unclear

Foreign Minister: Giulio Terzi Di Santagata – a career diplomat and Italy’s current ambassador to the United States, serving since October 2009.  Reportedly no political leanings, though he has been known to defend Italy’s former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi from unfriendly broadsides.

Minister for International cooperation: Andrea Riccardi – history lecturer at Rome’s Tre university.  Founder of the Roman Catholic Sant’Egidio community, an organisation which promotes peace and prayer.

Time Magazine did a profile of Riccardi in April 2008.  He appears to be apolitical.

Education Minister: Francesco Profumo – engineer and lecturer.  Also head of Italy’s national research council, the Cnr.

Welfare and equal opportunities Minister: Elsa Fornero – an economist.  Vice president of Intesa SanPaolo bank supervisory board, university lecturer and CEPS (Center for European Policy Studies) member.   Fornero was a borough councillor in Turin and had connections to Italy’s radicals.

Agricultural Policy Minister: Mario Catania – jurisprudence graduate and career civil servant with a background in agricultural policy work.  Political leanings unclear.

Environment Minister: Corrado Clini – a medical doctor.  Was a board member of ENEA, the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development.  Involved with Kyoto protocol.

Minister for Territorial Cohesion: Fabrizio Barca – university economic development lecturer.  Manager in Italy’s Economy and Finance ministries.  Worked with Carlo Azeglio Ciampi.  Barca’s father was a communist party politician.  Fabrizio Barca’s political leanings are not known.

Minister for Parliamentary Relationships: Piero Giarda – economics professor and public sector finance expert.  Worked with treasury during Prodi and D’Alema administrations.  Giarda appears to be left-friendly.

Well, Monti’s dream team is now in place.  Let’s see what the Bilderberg group experiment can do for Italy. –> UPDATE: 2013 – the mess Italy was in after too much time in the hands of Bunga Bunga Berlusconi in was too big for Monti’s technocrat dreamteam. Italy seems to now be in an even worse state after a bout of austerity, and Berlusconi is still pulling strings too. It was Berlusconi who brought the Monti-crat gvernment down. Monti was not assisted by Italy’s mainstream politicians which meant that many of his reforms were watered down to nothing, or almost. Only Italy’s financial markets seem to be content that some form of Greece style crisis has, so far, been averted.

Overall, the Bilderberg ‘experiment’ did not really work for Italy. Never mind, another approved Bilderberg man is now at Italy’s helm – Enrico Letta. The experiment is not over. End of Update.

If you are aware of the political leanings of the ministers listed above and can provide a source for your claim, please comment and add a link to information which supports your assertions.  Thanks.

Sources:

Reuters: Il nuovo governo di Mario Monti and  PENPIX-Ministers in new Italian government

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