Conte sworn in as new Italian prime minister
Max Civili
Press TV, Rome
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte's new left-leaning coalition government was sworn in by President Sergio Mattarella at the Quirinale Presidential Palace on Thursday.
The new cabinet comprises 21 ministers. It is backed by a coalition featuring long-time rival parties, the Five-Star Movement and the center-left Democratic Party.
Five-Star leader, Luigi Di Maio, has been appointed as the foreign minister in the new government. He was the deputy premier in Conte’s first administration.
The economy ministry has gone to Roberto Gualtieri, a professor of contemporary history and a member of the European Parliament Brexit Steering Group. Italy’s former prime minister Paolo Gentiloni Silveri has been designated as Italy's new European commissioner.
The 55-year old law professor, Conte, is at his second consecutive mandate as prime minister. His first coalition collapsed on August 8, when the former interior minister and leader of the far-right League party, Matteo Salvini, abruptly backed out of the alliance with the anti-establishment Five-Star Movement.
Top priorities in Conte's government program are blocking a VAT hike, introducing a minimum wage and a law on conflict of interest, providing more aid to families and the disabled and cutting the number of lawmakers from 945 to 600.
The Five-Star Movement and the Democratic Party have also agreed that there will be a loosening of recently introduced provisions to close Italian ports to NGO vessels carrying refugees rescued from the Mediterranean Sea.
The first test for Conte and his new government will be a vote of confidence in the Senate scheduled for Monday. Another will follow on Tuesday in the Lower House. Conte’s administration is the country's 66th cabinet since 1945.
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