Conte, a law academic with leftwing past

(ANSA) - Rome, May 20 - Few people had heard of Giuseppe Conte, the lawyer and academic tipped to become Italy's next premier, until 5-Star Movement (M5S) leader Luigi Di Maio presented him as the civil service minister of an eventual government led by the anti-establishment group during the election campaign.
    But Conte had been working for the M5S behind the scenes for some time and his relationship with Di Maio had become so close that he was tasked with writing the justice section of the movement's manifesto and the leader hired him as his lawyer.
    Born in Volturara Appulla, a small town near the southern city of Foggia, the 54-year-old is separated from his wife and has a 10-year-old daughter.
    Conte lives in Rome, where he has a big law firm, and he is a professor of private law at Florence University.
    He graduated in law at Rome University and did masters and other post-graduate courses at Yale, Vienna, the Sorbonne and New York University. A high flier, he was named a member of a commission set up by the premier's office in 1988, the year of his graduation, to work on reform of the civil code.
    He has had countless collaborations with foreign universities and articles published in legal periodicals and he has written several books. He was also a member of the council for administrative law, a post he quit when Di Maio announced he wanted him to be a minister. He said that he was a leftwinger before being won over by the M5S.
    "I voted for the left in the past," he said when he was presented as part of an eventual M5S government team.
    "Today I think the 20th-century ideological outlooks are no longer adequate.
    "I think it is more important to assess the work of a political party on the basis of its positions on the respect of fundamental rights and freedoms and the capacity to prepare programmes useful to citizens". He also picked out what he considered to be the most important parts of the M5S programme.
    "First of all, it is necessary to drastically abolish useless laws," he said.
    "There are many more than the 400 Luigi Di Maio talked about.
    "Second, it is necessary to reinforce anti-corruption legislation featuring initiatives that operate in the dark area that proceeds corruption.
    "Third, the bad school reform should be completely revised," he said, referring to the centre-left's 'good school' education reform.