Italy’s first populist government sworn in
ROME — Populists took power in Italy for the first time Friday with the swearing-in of a new government in a coalition fusing a political movement that delights in pillorying the establishment and a party whose anti-migrant, euro-skeptic politics have seen it soar in popularity.
At an oath-taking ceremony in the presidential palace atop Quirinal Hill, the new premier, political novice Giuseppe Conte and his 18 cabinet ministers pledged their loyalty to the Italian republic and to the nation’s post-war constitution in front of President Sergio Mattarella.
Only five days earlier, the leader of the antiestablishment 5-Star Movement, Luigi Di Maio, was inciting followers to press for Mattarella’s impeachment. The president had invoked his constitutional powers to reject the populists’ initial choice for economy minister because he is an advocate of a backup plan to exit from eurocurrency membership.
Mattarella’s act scuttled Conte’s first try to assemble a coalition uniting the forces of Di Maio’s 5-Stars and his populist rival Matteo Salvini, leader of the right-wing League, which is based in the affluent north.
The president approved Conte and a rejiggered cabinet list Thursday after Paolo Savona was moved from the economy slot to that of the ministry of European affairs.
The initial failure of Conte to form a government had alarmed financial markets, which feared a quick return to the polls that risked being tantamount to a plebiscite on Italy’s keeping the euro currency. The markets seemed reassured Friday by the formation of a new government.