French President Emmanuel Macron on
Monday praised the "courage" and the "great spirit of
responsibility" of Italian President Sergio Mattarella.
Macron said "I reaffirm my friendship and support for
President Mattarella who has an essential task facing him, that
of the institutional and democratic stability of his country.
"And that's what he is doing with a lot of courage and great
sense of responsibility".
The Italian head of State, invoking the need to protect
Italians' savings from market turmoil, on Sunday rejected the
League-5 Star pick for economy minister Paolo Savona as being
anti-euro, ending the parties' bid to form western Europe's
first all-populist government.
Mattarella then handed a mandate to former IMF economist
Carlo Cottarelli to form an interim government to steer Italy to
fresh elections - early next year if he gets parliament's
confidence or more likely after August.
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