Italy’s populist PM a step away from assuming power

Rome, June 6: Italy’s incoming Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte faced the second of two parliamentary votes on Wednesday, the final hurdle before his populist government can officially take the reins.

The alliance of the antiestablishment Five Star Movement ( M5S) and farright League Party is almost certain to win the vote in the chamber of deputies, where the two parties enjoy an ample majority.

Conte’s coalition was sworn in on Friday, after months of political turmoil that alarmed EU officials and spooked financial markets.

The cabinet comfortably won approval in the senate on Tuesday evening after Conte delivered his first policy speech, in which he called for “obligatory” redistribution of asylum seekers around the EU and a review of sanctions against Russia.

A lawyer with little political experience, Conte was nominated by League leader Matteo Salvini and Five Star head Luigi Di Maio — both of whom are now his deputy prime ministers.

In his address, Conte reaffirmed several of the coalition's key manifesto pledges, including a tough line on migrants and rejection of austerity in an economy weighed down by the eurozone’s second- largest debt ratio.

“We want to reduce our public debt, but we want to do so with growth and not with austerity measures,” he told senators.

Conte also called for the so- called Dublin Regulation to be overhauled in order to obtain “a fair distribution of responsibilities" and "an automatic system of compulsory distribution of asylum seekers”.

Under the Dublin Rules, would- be asylum seekers must submit their applications in their country of arrival, leaving Italy to deal with the huge numbers that have landed on its shores from North Africa, in particular Libya.