Law professor Giuseppe Conte got a
mandate as premier from President Sergio Mattarella Thursday and
said his 18 new ministers, five of them women, would be sworn in
Friday afternoon for a "government of change".
Accepting the mandate, he said the new government would work
to lift Italian living standards.
"We will work intensely to achieve the political objectives
anticipated in the (government) contract, we will work with
determination to improve the quality of the lives of all the
Italians".
The government comes 88 days after the inconclusive March 4
general election and Mattarella said "a complex iteinerary has
concluded.".
The government rests on an alliance and government contract
between anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) leader Luigi Di
Maio and anti-migrant Euroskeptic League leader Matteo Salvini.
Both will be deputy premiers and hold key ministries: Salvini
at interior where he will implement a promised crackdown on
undocumented migrants, and Di Maio at a new joint industry and
labour ministry where he will roll out a basic income for job
seekers and poor families.
Di Maio said "thanks you all, really. The government of
change is a reality! We dedicate all this to (late co-founder)
Gianroberto Casaleggio. I embrace you all! See you tomorrow!"
The M5S said "today is a historic day. The 5-Star
Movement is set to govern the country".
It urged everyone to celebrate "all together" on Saturday,
Republic Day, saying "Luigi Di Maio and all our spokesman (MPs)
will be there, in piazza from the Mouth of Truth in Rome at
19:000 to embrace and charge up with the energies we will need
to finally change Italy".
Salvini said on Facebook "commitment, consistency, listening,
work, patience, good sense, head and heart for the good of
Italians. Perhaps we're finally there after so many obstacles,
attacks, threats and lies. Thanks for your trust friends, I love
you and know that I'll need you".
later at a rally in Sondrio, he said "my commitment is for
the security of 60 million Italians.
"I will make felt my, our closeness to the forces of law and
order, who do not deserve to be fooled by criminals who enter
and exit jail every quarter of an hour, and we'll see them
left there longer".
Salvini said "open doors in Italy for decent people and a
one-way ticket for those who come to Italy to create problems
and think they can be maintained for life. 'Go home' will be one
of our priorities".
He said "I'd like to give a nice cut to those 5 billion
euros, that seem a bit much to me" (for migrant reception).
Salvini aid "I want to make Italy a protagonist in Europe
again. With good manners, without causing confusion, but I'm fed
up of governments with cap in hand. We are second to none".
He said "the mafia has always made us and will always make us
sick, wherever there is injustice I will try to be there with a
team. I ask you to be close to us because you can't do anything
on your own".
salvini said "I will be the minister of everyone" and the
new government is a "government of good will, of decent people
without debts to anyone. I will be in an office a lot but as
much as possible among you, among people, And may God preserve
us".
The two leaders had met in Rome earlier for talks on the
possible new government, 88 days after the inconclusive March 4
general election.
They were later joined by their potential premier pick,
Florence law professor Conte.
The talks were said to be focusing on a possible new post for
anti-euro economist Paolo Savona, whose rejection as economy
minister by President Sergio Mattarella led to the collapse of
the first M5S-League government formation bid on Sunday.
There has been speculation as to who would take Savona's
place at the economy ministry.
Rome Tor Vergata University economics lecturer Giovanni Tria
is now being lined up as economy minister, M5S sources said.
Savona would move to European affairs and Enzo Moavero
Milanesi, a former EU affairs minister, would be foreign
minister, the sources said.
Salvini said earlier he was engaged in the "last hours" of
talks to form a government with the M5S.
"Last hours of work for the government, we're putting
everything into it! Meanwhile the news takes us back to harsh
reality, with an immigrant picking off the feathers of pigeons
in broad daylight and in the middle of the street...Go home!" he
wrote on Facebook.
Far-right nationalist Brothers of Italy (FdI) leader Giorgia
Meloni met Salvini earlier amid speculation she might be a
candidate for a ministry if the FdI joined the government
majority.
But Meloni said Di Maio had ruled this out, and FdI would
abstain in a confidence vote. She also said she could rule out
there being any FdI ministers "without our knowledge".
Di Maio was said to be wary about having another far-rightist
as well as Salvini as his partner, since polls show the M5S has
been bleeding voters it gained from the centre-left Democratic
Party (PD) on March 4 because of the possible new government's
rightward drift.
Rightwing policy points in the "contract for a government of
change" the League and the M5S drew up include a 'flat tax' with
two rates, 15% and 20%, which would allegedly disproportionately
benefit the better off, and a huge crackdown on migrants, with
Salvini vowing to eject over half a million of them and set up
detention centres across Italy.
More leftwing policies, advanced by the M5S, include a
universal basic income for job seekers.
Salvini, for his part, was said to be looking at criticism
from his voters about his perceived unwillingness to join a
government and instead bank on benefitting from a surge in
support in fresh elections.
Meanwhile law professor Conte left his post as lecturer in
Florence to travel down to Rome on Thursday afternoon.
Conte was to be the premier of the M5S-League executive that
self-destructed after Mattarella vetoed Savona, citing the
threat to Italians' savings because of market turbulence that
would ensure from having an economy minister who was openly
against the euro and Germany.
Since then, both Di Maio and Salvini have repeatedly stressed
they do not want to leave the euro.
Meanwhile ex-IMF official Carlo Cottarelli, who had been
waiting in the wings as a possible stopgap technocrat premier to
lead Italy to new elections at the end of this year, handed back
his mandate, paving the way for the new executive which could be
sworn in as early as Friday.
Cottarelli said it had been a "great honour to work for the
country, if only for a short time" and that a political
government was "a better solution".
He sent his best wishes to the possible new government,
saying "I hope it is born".
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