founding, along with other ministers and many members of the parliament, the New Centre-Right party, remaining in government. The government later won key confidence votes in December 2013, with 173 votes in favour in the Senate and 350 in the Chamber. On 26 January 2014, the Minister of Agriculture, Nunzia De Girolamo, resigned from her post due to claims of improper conduct linked to a scandal in the local healthcare system of her hometown, Benevento. Her resignation was accepted by Letta on the following day, who took the ministerial role ad interim. Resignation On 8 December 2013, the Mayor of Florence, Matteo Renzi, won the Democratic Party leadership election by a landslide, immediately starting rumors about the possibility of becoming the new Prime Minister. On 17 January 2014, while on air at Le invasioni barbariche on La7 TV channel, interviewed about tensions between him and Prime Minister Letta, Renzi tweeted the hashtag #enricostaisereno ("Enrico don't worry") to reassure his party colleague that he was not plotting anything against him. The growing criticism of the slow pace of Italian economic reform left Letta increasingly isolated within his own party. At a PD's meeting on 13 February 2014, the Democratic Party leadership voted heavily in favour of Renzi's motion for "a new government, a new phase and a radical programme of reforms". Minutes after the party backed Renzi's proposal by 136 votes to 16, with two abstentions, Letta went to the Quirinal Palace, for a bilateral meeting with President Napolitano. In an earlier speech, Renzi had paid tribute to Letta, saying that he did not intended to put him "on trial". But, without directly proposing himself as the next Prime Minister, he said the Eurozone's third-largest economy urgently needed "a new phase" and "radical programme" to push through badly-needed reforms. The motion he put forward made clear "the necessity and urgency of opening a new phase with a new executive". Speaking privately to party leaders, Renzi said that Italy was "at a crossroads" and faced either holding fresh elections or a new government without a return to the polls. On 14 February, Letta resigned from the office of Prime Minister. Following Letta's resignation, Renzi received the task of forming a new government from President Napolitano on 17 February, and was formally sworn in as Prime Minister on 22 February. Academic career In 2015, Letta resigned as a member of the Chamber of