Italy ‘playing with fire’ as it seeks to appoint academic as premier

A LAW professor with little political experience was nominated as Italy’s next prime minister yesterday as the EU warned the country’s nascent populist government is “playing with fire”.

After 11 weeks of political paralysis, Luigi Di Maio, head of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement, and Matteo Salvini, leader of the hard-right League, presented their choice for prime minister to Sergio Mattarella, the president of Italy.

Prof Giuseppe Conte, who teaches law at Rome and Florence universities and briefly attended Cambridge University, is likely to head the first populist, Eurosceptic government elected by a founding EU member state. He was chosen as a compromise candidate by the two party leaders, who both ruled themselves out of the top job.

Prof Conte, 54, who is not an MP, could have a tough challenge in acting as a go-between – the League and Five Star diverge on key issues and their leaders are very different. As head of state, Mr Mattarella must approve the nomination before the parties can choose a cabinet. They will then have to put the whole package to a vote.

Mr Di Maio is tipped to become minister for labour and welfare, while Mr Salvini could become interior minister, enabling him to put into action his election pledge to expel half a million unauthorised migrants.

The prospect of a government that is deeply hostile to austerity policies imposed by Brussels and wants spending limits relaxed unnerved the markets yesterday. Italy’s borrowing costs surged and Italian stocks fell by up to 2.1 per cent before rebounding a little.

The EU is alarmed by the parties’ promise of a giant spending spree which, it has been estimated, could cost €100 billion (£88 billion) a year. Manfred Weber, a German MEP and leader of the powerful EPP grouping in the European Parliament, warned Italian politicians: “You are playing with fire because Italy is heavily indebted. Irrational or populist actions could cause a new eurozone crisis.”

He called on Italy to “stay within the confines of reason”.