Maria Cavaletti (born 1983) was Prime Minister of Italy from 2031 to 2032, succeeding Franco Alieri.
Biography[]
Maria Cavaletti was born in Varese, Lombardy, Italy in 1983, and she worked as a lawyer for several years before being recognized as a rising star by Lega Nord. In 2014, she was one of their new deputies elected to the Chamber in a year of resurgence for the party, and she was the deputy who masterminded the 2030 corporate tax bill which passed with bipartisan support. In 2031, the term-limited incumbent Lega leader and Prime Minister Franco Alieri was forced to step down, and Cavaletti took his place as the Lega candidate for Prime Minister. Both Lega Nord and the popular M5S party declined in their vote and seat counts, but Cavaletti narrowly defeated M5S candidate Marcello Ruvolli for the premiership in a vote of 52.3% to 47.7%, with 62.9% of Italians voting in the election.
Premiership[]
Cavaletti began her premiership by spearheading the successful effort to abolish the Tobin tax, gaining the support of Forza Italia and the Democratic Party of Italy to abolish the tax in a 12-11 vote. The same coalition, this time with the support of half of the Italian Left, then voted 14-9 against a bank tax plan put forward by M5S. The Parliament voted 17-5 to expand the Parliament from 24 to 30 seats, with only Forza Italia opposing the bill; M5S passed the bill in an attempt to capitalize off of its great popularity and gain more bargaining power for parliamentary votes. The Chamber also approved hunting regulations 11-6, defeating the objections of the right and the PD due to three rightist deputies' preoccupations with writing their own laws at the same time as the vote. Forza Italia, Lega Nord, and the Italian Left also failed to abolish the old anti-Mafia commission, but they voted 12-10 to abolish the stamp duty. Again, the M5S and Italian Left, with aid from some dissenters on the right, voted 14-9 to approve tuition-free university, another blow to Cavaletti's government. By the end of January 2032, M5S was the highest-funded party, while the Italian Left began to catch up to Lega Nord in finances. M5S, Lega Nord, and Forza Italia voted 12-7 to prevent the nation from re-entering the European Union, a rare moment of collaboration between them. They also collaborated to approve a bank tax in an 11-8 vote, and they voted 12-8 to approve a universal basic income. In a politically-motivated vote, M5S proposed to eliminate prime ministerial term limits, reversing one of their earliest policies; it passed 20-1. In mid-2032, M5S won 34.23% of the vote and 10 seats, LN won 20.49% and 6 seats, SI won 17.59% and 5 seats, FI dropped to 14.27% and 5 seats, and the PD dropped to 13.41% and 4 seats. The new Parliament was expanded to 30 seats, giving M5S the clear majority they wished for, and leaving the loosely-united left with over half of Parliament under their control. Alieri returned as the party's premiership candidate and won 52.5% of the vote, and Cavaletti was forced to stand down.