POPULIST PARTIES HEAD OFF CRISIS, REACH DEAL

Italy appeared to step back from the brink of a continent-rattling political crisis on Thursday night, with officials agreeing to a deal that averts the threat of fresh elections and puts two populist parties in charge of the eurozone’s third largest economy.

Italy becomes the first core Western European country to be led by a purely populist government.

The anti-establishment Five Star Movement and the far-right League will govern together. And they will get their preferred prime minister, little-known law professor Giuseppe Conte.

“We will work resolutely to improve the quality of life of all Italians,” Conte announced Thursday night after the president, Sergio Mattarella, formally asked him to lead a new government.