Italy’s populist government wins votes of confidence

ROME— Italy’s new populist government won the first of two votes of confidence needed to start governing after its leader denounced Europe’s “failed” immigration policy and warned Tuesday that his Cabinet would renegotiate Italy’s fiscal obligations so it can help struggling Italians. The 5-Star-league alliance secured 171 votes in favor from Parliament’s upper chamber, well beyond the minimum needed to pass. Another 116 senators voted against the coalition government and 25 abstained. Lawmakers in the lower Chamber of Deputies, where the two parties also have a majority, are set to cast confidence votes Wednesday that would launch western Europe’s first populist government.

In his inaugural policy address ahead of the Senate vote, Premier Giuseppe Conte readily acknowledged that the 5-Star-league partnership marks a radical shift from the Italian status quo.

“If ‘populism’ is the attitude of leaders to listen to the people … and if ‘anti-system’ means introducing a new system that removes the old privileges of power, then this government deserves both these descriptions,” said the premier, who was sworn into his first political office Friday. Conte, who until last week was still teaching law classes at the University of Florence, was interrupted with applause nearly three dozen times during his 75-minute speech. But during the debate that followed, opposition senators from left to right ridiculed the government’s proposed agenda as contradictory, superficial and fiscally unrealistic.