No election needed as Italy forms Europe’s first populist cabinet
Eurosceptic politicians cheered and Milan’s stock index rose yesterday after Italy’s populists staved off the threat of a new election and formed western Europe’s first populist government with a last-minute compromise.
The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and the right-wing League party were due to swear in their cabinet last night, capping a rollercoaster week of political and financial turmoil by agreeing to drop a proposed economy minister who had concerned Italy’s president.
Premier-designate Giuseppe Conte, the law professor who had promised to be the “defence attorney of the Italian people” in his first, failed bid to form a government, got a taste of the expectations many Italians have for his revived team as he reported for work yesterday. He was confronted by a group of laid-off workers proover testing outside parliament. “You have to trust all of us,” Conte assured them, after listening to the workers’ plight.
Milan’s stock index was trading up 2.6 per cent and Italy’s borrowing rates eased further after having soared earlier in the week when it appeared Italy was heading into a new election that could have turned into a referendum on the euro.
But by Thursday night, 5-Star leader Luigi Di Maio and League leader Matteo Salvini found the compromise that earned them president Sergio Mattarella’s blessing to form a government. They shifted their eurosceptic candidate for economy minister to another ministry and installed a more mainstream economist in his place.
Europe’s populists and rightwingers cheered the formation of a 5-Star-league government as a slap in the face to Brussels. French far-right leader Marine Le Pen tweeted: “Bravo to the coalition.”
“It’s a victory of democracy intimidation and threats from the European Union,” said Le Pen, who shares the League’s anti-immigrant stance.
European Commission President Jean-claude Juncker told a conference on Thursday that he loved Italy, but refused to accept the frequent pass-the-buck blame by Italian politicians that Italy’s ills are the fault of the EU.
“Italians have to take care of the poor regions of Italy. That means more work, less corruption,” he said. “We will help them, as we always did. But don’t play this game.”
His comments sparked outrage in Italy, with Salvini blasting them as “racist” in a speech in northern Lombardy.
“With the new government, we’ll see how to make them respect the rights and dignity of 60 million Italians who want co-operation from Europe, not insults,” he said.
By yesterday, EC spokeswoman Mina Andreeva said Juncker “deeply regrets” the comments and reaffirmed that he not only loved Italy, but that the EU executive was committed to working with its new government.
“We have full confidence in the capacity and willingness of the new government to engage constructively with its European partners and EU institutions to uphold Italy’s central role in the common European project,” Ms Andreeva said.
Italy’s inconclusive parliamentary election in March produced political stalemate before Mattarella asked Conte, a political novice tapped by the 5-Stars and League, to try to form a government.
The bid failed after Mr Mattarella last Sunday vetoed the proposed economy minister, Paolo Savona, who had expressed doubts about whether Italy should stay in the eurozone. Mr Mattarella then tapped a former IMF official to head a possible interim government of technocrats to see Italy through to an early election.