This week in history: February 1-7 31 January 2021 Antonio Maccanico On February 1, 1996, merchant banker and two-time former cabinet minister Antonio Maccanico was named as interim prime minister of Italy. He was the first would-be premier to receive the support of both the ex-Stalinist PDS (Party of the Democratic Left) and the neo-fascist National Alliance, an event that marked a further stage in the rightward evolution of the remnants of the Italian Communist Party. The right-wing Forza Italia of Silvio Berlusconi also supported Maccanico’s selection by President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro to replace another non-party technocrat, banker Lamberto Dini, who resigned a month prior after a year in office. But Maccanico was unable to form a government despite the support of the three major voting blocs, and returned his mandate two weeks later.