ROME, May 28 (Xinhua) -- For the second time in a week, Italian President Sergio Mattarella has given a mandate to form a new government to an obscure and low-key figure with an impressive curriculum vitae.
The latest is Carlo Cottarelli, a 64-year-old economist who until the last few days was best known as a former executive director of the International Monetary Fund's board. He is currently the director of the Observatory on Italian Public Accounts, a position he would leave if confirmed as prime minister.
Cottarelli is a less controversial choice for the job than Giuseppe Conte, the attorney and law professor who was prime minister-designate for less than a week.
Conte, 53, attracted headlines after reports he lied about his educational background, and then he abandoned efforts to get the job on Sunday after Mattarella rejected his polarizing choice of finance minister.
The biggest difference between the two nominations is that while Conte was picked to head a political government -- he was the choice of two parties that performed well in the March 4 general election, Cottarelli is Mattarella's pick to head a technocrat government that will lead the country until the next election.
According to political scientist and analyst Marco Neri, a technocrat government is charged with keeping the government operating until a new political government can be selected, though a technocrat government can also be given a specific mandate to pass a specific reform or measure.
"In one way, the influence of a technocrat government is more limited because it cannot make political decisions," Neri, who was an advisor to Mario Monti, who headed a technocrat government that ran Italy for 18 months ending in April 2013, told Xinhua. "In another way, it can have more influence because it is not political. It can gain support from different parties."
The Monti government was unusual because at the end of its mandate, Monti, a former European Commissioner, decided to stand as a candidate in the 2013 general election. Most likely in response to that, Mattarella said Monday that Cottarelli and any ministers in his government would be barred from standing as candidates.
"Staying out of politics is a fair request because Mattarella wants to be sure that whatever the Cottarelli government does, it will not be as a way to further political ambitions," Ugo Arrigo, a professor of economic sciences and statistics at Milan Bicocca University, said in an interview.
Arrigo worked alongside Cottarelli on the Spending Review, a government program tasked with reducing government expenditures: Cottarelli headed the initiative and Arrigo was one of his lieutenants.
Arrigo told Xinhua his former colleague was "friendly, confident, and experienced" as well as a "perfect choice" in the role of a technocrat prime minister.
"He is not at all political, and his economic background will give him the capacity to understand what the economic problems are and how to fix them," Arrigo said. "It's not obligatory that a political leader have a detailed understanding of economics but in a country like Italy, maybe it should be."
Once Cottarelli gains Mattarella's approval for his slate of ministers -- that is the step where Conte's nomination derailed, though few expect any controversy around Cottarelli's ministerial picks, the new government will face a confidence vote in parliament.
Mattarella can still appoint Cottarelli even if the new government loses the confidence vote, but with the approval of parliament, the new government could be given a mandate to pass an electoral reform that could make lengthy stalemates like the ones that emerged after the general elections this year and in 2013 less likely going forward.
