Renzi asked to form Italy government
Italy’s President Giorgio Napolitano has asked Matteo Renzi, the mayor of Florence, to form a new government.
Enrico Letta resigned as prime minister on Friday, after he was ousted in a vote called by Mr Renzi at a meeting of their centre-left Democratic Party.
Mr Renzi, who has never been elected as MP, will now have to come to a deal with Mr Letta’s former coalition partners.
He will begin talks on Tuesday and could be sworn in on Thursday.
Mr Renzi would become Italy’s youngest ever prime minister, two months younger than Benito Mussolini when he came to power in 1922.
In a separate development on Monday, Italy’s borrowing costs dropped to their lowest rates for almost eight years. Ten-year debt bonds fell to 3.64%, seen as an apparent nod from the markets towards Mr Renzi’s plans for economic reform.
Mr Renzi, the Democratic Party leader, spent some 90 minutes in talks with President Napolitano in Rome on Monday morning.
BBC said as he came out he talked of his commitment and determination and the need for urgency in reforms.
Constitutional changes would be put forward by the end of February, labour reforms by March and improvements to bureaucracy the following month.
“The most pressing emergency, which concerns my generation and others, is the emergency of labour, of unemployment and of despair,” Mr Renzi told reporters.
Italy has a 41% rate of unemployment among 15-24 year-olds and a wider rate of 12.7%. Democratic Party colleague Maria Elena Boschi said it would take several days to form a new administration.
After being sworn in by the president, he would need to win votes of confidence in both houses of parliament.
Mr Renzi, 39, helped to engineer Mr Letta’s ousting as prime minister after questioning the performance of his coalition government and accusing him of failing to implement promised reforms of what is seen as an often corrupt and wasteful bureaucracy.
The ex-prime minister had come under increasing pressure over Italy’s poor economic performance and Mr Renzi argued that a change of government was needed to end “uncertainty”.
Mr Letta’s position became untenable once the Democratic Party backed a call for a new administration.
He only lasted 10 months in post after forming a coalition government with the centreright last year.
Mr Renzi’s initial priority will be to secure the support of the small New Centre Right (NCD) party in order to command a parliamentary majority and start cabinet building.