Giorgetti League's pick for economy ministry

(ANSA) - ROME, OCT 14 - Outgoing industry minister Giancarlo Giorgetti is the League's pick for economy minister in the likely new government of Brothers of Italy (FdI) leader Giorgia Meloni, League leader Matteo Salvini said Friday.
    Salvini said it was "indisputable" that the League would indicate Giorgetti's name to Meloni when she picks her new cabinet. She is expected to accept Giorgetti in the key post., having already said he would be an "excellent" economy minister.
    Giorgetti, 55, who became deputy League leader in 2016, has won plaudits for his work as industry minister in outgoing Premier Mario Draghi's executive.
    Italia media say he is not formally among the League's quota of candidates for the new government but is considered a technocrat.
    Giorgetti is close to the League governors who govern many Italian regions, especially in the richer north of the country, and is seen as being a rival to Salvini, whose position has been weakened by the party's poor performance in the September 25 general election.
    The League's vote, largely cannibalised by Meloni's FdI, fell from 34% in European elections in 2019 to just 9% in last month's general election.
    The League is the second biggest party in the centre right coalition after FdI, which got 26%, and just ahead of three-time former premier and media magnate Silvio Berlusconi's centre right Forza Italia (FI) party, which got 8% as many of its voters also migrated to Meloni.
    Giorgetti will be faced with the toughest policy decisions for the new government amid an energy emergency due to the Ukraine war, cost of living crisis and looming recession. (ANSA).