Mario Federici (1961-) was Prime Minister of Italy from 2013 to 2015 (succeeding Francesco Crespino and preceding Gianna Ruggero) and from 2016 to 2018 (succeeding Ruggero and preceding Gabriele Tedeschi). Federici was an avowed progressive who challenged the Democratic Party of Italy's deficit spending measures and the parliamentary right's fiscal conservative and social conservative policies, and he oversaw increased democratization of the country through decreasing the size of Parliament, decreasing the threshold required for constitutional amendments to pass, and decreasing the voting age to 16. He also supported term limits for Prime Ministers; his reduction of the size of Parliament and his support for term limits led to his defeat in several leadership contests after leaving office in 2018. In 2021, after being implicated in a corruption scandal, he decided to step down as party leader to give deputy leader Stefano Vizzini a chance at being elected Prime Minister.
Biography[]
Mario Federici was born in Municipio III of Rome, Italy in 1961, and he worked for a computer technology company during the 1990s and 2000s before entering politics with M5S. Federici promoted progressive causes such as environmentalism, democracy, and anti-elitism, and, in 2009, he led his party to gain 13.59% of the vote and 6 seats in the Chamber of Deputies after criticizing Lega Nord and Forza Italia in attack ads. During his time in the Chamber, Federici oversaw his party's growth as it proposed several successful tax increases and new social programs, and it was a strange ally of Francesco Crespino's Democratic Party of Italy government, alternating between supporting its tax and social programs and opposing its constitutional programme. Eventually, Federici managed to take advantage of rising anti-establishment sentiment to propel his party into the parliamentary majority in the late 2013 election, and he was elected Prime Minister in a vote of 23-15, defeating Lega Nord leader Franco Cafora.
First premiership[]
Federici's first act as Prime Minister was to successfully reduce the constitutional amendment threshold to above 50%, which the Chamber passed in a vote of 18-7 with 12 abstentions. However, M5S suffered a reversal when Parliament voted 23-11 to abolish the income tax, and it legalized prostitution in a vote of 20-15 with the goal of increasing its tax revenue. The M5S government also failed 13-21 to approve a stamp duty, and it failed 12-23 to approve press freedom. The Chamber voted 30-5 to approve the citizen's vote, kept universal healthcare in a vote of 22-10, voted 23-9 to approve a government scholarship, narrowly voted 17-15 to abolish the child benefit (in a move opposed by M5S), voted 20-7 to approve sex education, voted 21-8 to continue with prime minister term limits, voted 14-11 to keep the ambulance service, and voted 28-5 to reimplement the income tax. M5S launched a media offensive against FI, LN, and the PD, and, in the mid-2014 general election, M5S placed in first with 25.37% of teh vote and 10 seats, LN placed second with 23.73% and 10 seats, PD placed third with 22.97% and 9 seats, FI placed fourth with 14.98% and 6 seats, and SI placed fifth with 12.95% and 5 seats. A week later, the Chamber voted 26-9 to abolish the agricultural subsidy in a setback for M5S. The next day, Federici was re-elected Prime Minister in a vote of 22-15, enjoying the support of his party, SI, and most of the Democratic Party, while Lega leader Cafora was backed by Forza Italia and his own party. The new Chamber then voted 21-8 to keep the public smoking ban in place, and M5S spearheaded a successful 28-4 vote to reduce the voting age to 16. The Chamber then voted 27-4 to expand the government's research options to three choices rather than two, and Federici donated much of his party's coffers to help the economy recover to better levels, although Italy still remained in debt. Federici then voted to reduce Parliament to 27 seats to decrease corruption and bureaucracy, and the Chamber voted 19-15 to abolish the election threshold. The Chamber then voted 24-9 to abolish the European Union, but it rebelled against the M5S by voting 20-15 to abolish retiremennt homes. In January 2015, the Chamber again rebelled against M5S by voting 18-14 against highway tolls. The Chamber then voted 20-12 against an M5S-proposed car tax. In mid-2015, the general election saw a decrease in support for the populist parties and a rise in support for the establishment parties. M5S placed first with 24.81% and 6 seats, PD placed second with 23.34% and 6 seats, Lega placed third with 22.73% and 5 seats, FI placed fourth with 15.63% and 4 seats, and SI placed fifth with 13.5% and 3 seats. The ensuing leadership election saw PD leader Gianna Ruggero win the leadership vote in a 14-8 decision.
Second premiership[]
Federici continued to crusade for progressive ideals, and, before the 2016 general election, he launched two months of protests against the ruling PD to have the people express their anger at the establishment. In the ensuing general election, M5S took the lead in Parliament and Federici defeated Lega leader Franco Cafora in a 13-7 vote to become Prime Minister again. Under Federici, the chamber voted 18-2 to protect plant varieties, but narrowly voted 9-8 against a pollution tax. Federici achieved a major goal of his when the Chamber passed a press freedom amendment in a 14-8 vote, although the Chamber also voted 12-7 to abolish the stamp duty and 13-8 to abolish the land tax. The economy began to slump once again as a result of the Chamber's rebellions, and the Chamber voted 13-7 to outlaw prostitution, destroying another source of tax income. In the mid-2017 general election, M5S increased its share of the vote to 33.73% and 8 seats, while PD placed second with 18.07% and 4 seats, FI in third with 17.54% and 4 seats, SI in fifth with 15.87% and 4 seats, and LN in last with 14.78% and 4 seats. Despite this, the Chamber delivered a prre-election insult to the government in a 10-9 vote to abolish the citizen's voting age. In the ensuing leadership contest, Federici narrowly won re-election in a 10-8 vote, defeating PD leader Gabriele Tedeschi. The Chamber voted 9-6 to approve a pollution tax, voted against the implementation of an election threshold, voted 11-9 to approve a stamp duty, voted 11-10 to approve a car tax, voted 16-7 to approve a custom duty, failed 11-11 to pass an airport tax, and failed 11-10 to legalize prostitution again. The government then voted 14-8 to approve a travel visa program to raise tax money. In a late 2017 poll, M5S was the most popular party with 29.7% support, followed by PD with 20.1%, FI with 18.3%, SI with 16.5%, and LN with 15.4%. In the actual general election of December 2017, M5S saw its seat count of 8 remain the same, while its vote slipped to 31.85%; PD won 21.51% and 5 seats, SI won 17.26% and 4 seats, LN won 14.86% and 4 seats, and FI won 14.51% and 3 seats. While M5S maintained its majority, the other parties backed PD leader Gabriele Tedeschi over Mario Federici. While Stefano Vizzini took over the party's leadership for prime ministerial elections only, Federici continude to serve as the party's de jure leader until mid-2021, when he was implicated in a corruption scandal on the same day as the premiership election. He was then forced to fully step down as party leader and let Vizzini become the party's formal leader.