“I swear to be loyal to the Republic,” Draghi recited as he stood before Italian President Sergio Mattarella in the presidential palace in a ceremony broadcast live on television.

He received a small bell from outgoing premier Giuseppe Conte in a traditional ceremony of the exchanging of the bell to mark the handover of power.

The bell is used to mark the beginning of cabinet meetings.

Cabinet members, who include technocrats, veteran politicians and ministers held over from the previous government, each took the oath of office before heading over to government headquarters for their first cabinet meeting.

The 73-year-old, known as “Super Mario” for doing “whatever it takes” to save the eurozone in the midst of the 2010s debt crisis, has put together a national unity government involving almost all Italy’s political parties.

A new survey showed the former banker had the support of 62 per cent of Italians.

Draghi was summoned by Mattarella after Conte’s centre-left coalition collapsed.

He has spent the last 10 days assembling a broad-based coalition and on Friday night formally accepted the post of prime minister in a meeting with Mattarella.

On Wednesday, Draghi will be presented to the Senate, the upper house of parliament, followed by the lower Chamber of Deputies on Thursday for a confidence vote that will give the final official blessing to his government.

Draghi has the support of a rainbow coalition ranging from leftists to Matteo Salvini’s far-right League.

All but one of Italy’s major parties have rallied to his side and his cabinet includes representatives from across the political spectrum, as well as technocrats in key posts, including the finance ministry and a new green transition portfolio.

On Saturday, head of the European Commmision, Ursula von der Leyden, tweeted that Draghi’s “experience will be an exceptional asset for Italy and Europe”, while British Prime Minister Boris Johnson congratulated him.

Although Draghi himself has no political power base, he relies on years of experience in the Italian civil service, as well as his banking career.

Draghi must immediately begin working on plans for how to spend more than €200 billion in European Union funding aimed at rebuilding the recession-bound economy.

Italy is due to return to the polls in two years, but it is far from certain that Draghi will be able to survive that long at the head of a coalition that includes parties with radically opposing views on issues such as immigration, justice, infrastructure development and welfare.

Highlighting the political instability, Draghi’s government is the 67th to take office since 1946 and the seventh in the last decade alone.