Final hurdle for Italy’s new man
SECOND VOTE: PRIME MINISTER SET TO TAKE REINS AS HE PROMISES TO ADDRESS DEBT, MIGRANTS
Lawyer Conte has little political experience, but has strong support from deputies.
Incoming Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte faced the second of two parliamentary votes yesterday – the final hurdle before his populist government can officially take the reins.
The alliance of the anti-Establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) and far-right 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 spooked financial markets.
The Cabinet comfortably won approval in the Senate on Tuesday 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 deputies.
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 socalled Dublin Regulation to be overhauled to obtain “a fair distribution of responsibilities” and “an automatic system of compulsory distribution of asylum seekers”.
Under the Dublin Rules, wouldbe 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.
Ahead of his first engagements, Conte reiterated the government’s intention to stay in the EU.
“Europe is our home,” Conte said, adding that he wanted a “stronger but also fairer Europe”.
But the government’s ambitious anti-austerity policies – which include rolling back pension reform – have worried Brussels, given Italy’s huge public debt.
“There will be problems in the autumn if the new government implements even 50% of what it has planned,” head of the European Stability Mechanism Klaus Regling told the German newspaper Handelsblatt yesterday.
Since being sworn in as interior minister, Salvini has already made waves.
He wasted no time addressing immigration, stressing Italy “cannot be Europe’s refugee camp”.
The 45-year-old said the “good times for illegals are over” in a country where about 700 000 migrants have arrived since 2013.
The bullish minister also caused a diplomatic gaffe with Tunisia after accusing the North African country of exporting “convicts” to Italy.
Tunisia’s foreign ministry summoned its Italian ambassador and expressed their “deep surprise” at Salvini’s comments in light of the two countries’ “cooperation in the fight against illegal immigration”. – AFP