Four weeks after his emphatic general election victory, media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi was yesterday sworn in as Prime Minister of Italy's 59th government of the post-war era.
In a 21-minute ceremony, Mr Berlusconi and the ministers of his second, centre-right government were sworn in by the state President, Mr Carlo Azeglio Ciampi.
Within minutes of that ceremony, Mr Berlusconi travelled to government house, Palazzo Chigi, where he formally took over from the caretaker Prime Minister, Mr Giuliano Amato. Last night, Mr Berlusconi convened his first cabinet meeting at which the first item on the agenda was the approval of a government decree appointing two other ministers, Mr Girolamo Sirchia, a haematologist, to Health and Mr Maurizio Gasparri, of postfascist Alleanza Nazionale, to Telecommunications.
Mr Sirchia is one of five independent "technicians" appointed by Mr Berlusconi, the others being former World Trade Organisation leader Mr Renato Ruggiero, to the Foreign Office; the former IBM executive, Mr Lucio Stanca, to Technological Innovation; former RAI president Letizia Moratti to Education; and civil engineer Pietro Lunardi to Transport.
The appointment of five independents as well as the nomination of economists Mr Giulio Tremonti and Mr Antonio Martino to the Treasury and Defence Ministries respectively may go some way to reassuring those European partners worried by the presence of both the Northern League and Alleanza Nazionale in cabinet. Senator Umberto Bossi, nominated to Institutional Reform, is one of three Northern League Ministers while Alleanza Nazionale have five ministers, with the leader, Mr Gianfranco Fini, appointed Deputy Prime Minister.