Italy PM candidate faces CV scrutiny

ITALY’S president yesterday summoned Giuseppe Conte as he prepared to announce whether he will appoint the little-known lawyer to lead a government formed by farright and anti-establishment groups.

Italian media said claims that Conte had exaggerated his CV had delayed President Sergio Mattarella’s decision on whether to approve him as prime minister.

The anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) and the anti-immigrant League nominated Conte, 54, for the post on Monday. But scandal soon struck over doubts about his claims to have studied at certain top world universities.

“Conte betrayed by his CV,” ran a headline in left-leaning newspaper La Republicca.

“The CV affair is open, Conte is hanging in the balance,” said Il Corriere della Sera.

Conte’s official CV says that he “furthered his juridical studies” at Yale, New York University, Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, the Sorbonne and Cambridge, but some entries have been called into question.

NYU said that their records did not “reflect Giuseppe Conte having been at the University as a student or having an appointment as a faculty member.” It said he was granted permission to conduct research in the institution’s law library between 2008 and 2014.

Cambridge University declined to give details about Conte.

Duquesne University said he did legal research but “was not enrolled as a student.”