Abstract

This article analyzes the first year of COVID-19 managed by the Conte government, dividing it into three phases. The first phase most emphasizes the role of Prime Minister, which has expanded significantly in recent decades and finds additional space for action through the Prime Minister’s Decrees (DPCMs). The second phase is marked by the end of the most severe containment measures and old mechanisms of party bargaining: DPCMs are drastically reduced and majority summits return to play a key role in the policy making. In the third phase there is a continuous confrontation between the prime minister and representatives of the coalition, with a compulsive resort to the majority summits, which have eroded the substantial personal capital of Giuseppe Conte, leading him to resign