Conte gets government mandate 80 days after vote

Giuseppe Conte

ROME – Five Star Movement professor Giuseppe Conte accepted a mandate on Wednesday from Italian President Sergio Mattarella as prime minister designate to try to form a government with his radical party and the anti-migrant, Eurosceptic League party.

 “I will be a defence advocate for Italians,” Conte said, “the government of change is born.”

 The head of state called Conte, 54, to the Quirinal Palace as the M5S-League coalition lumbered closer towards achieving their ‘contract’ including a basic income, flat tax, pension reform, and vows to renegotiate EU spending limits, expel half a million undocumented migrants, lift compulsory school vaccinations, scrap hundreds of ‘useless’ laws, and lift sanctions against Russia.

 Mattarella’s authorisation climaxed 80 days of tense discussions following the country’s inconclusive general election on March 4, in which no party obtained an absolute majority, leaving Italy in a state of political paralysis.

 Marred by a series of vetoes, obstinate party alliances and Conte’s unexpected résumé controversy, Mattarella wrestled for a solution as Italy careered, on several occasions, towards a return to the polls.

 The unelected political novice, who accepted Mattarella’s mandate “with reservation,” as is customary practice, was chosen as a compromise candidate by M5S kingpin, Luigi Di Maio, and League leader, Matteo Salvini.

 “Today the Third Republic has started,” Di Maio said whilst scepticism grew across Europe.

 The EU has repeatedly warned about prospect of an inexperienced populist government which threatens to push the boundaries of Italy’s international commitments.

 Conte faces a struggle to establish a stable M5S-League executive. Forza Italia leader, Silvio Berlusconi, and the head of Fratelli d’Italia, Georgia Meloni, look set to vote against the fragile alliance which would depend on a slender eight-seat majority in the Senate.

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