Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Relief as Italy government sworn in
ROME: Italy’s new anti- establishment government was installed yesterday, calming markets spooked by the possibility of snap elections that might have become a de facto referendum on quitting the euro.
The new prime minister is Giuseppe Conte, a littleknown law professor, and the cabinet includes the two coalition party heads, the League’s Mateo Salvini and Luigi Di Maio of the 5-Star Movement.
After months of uncertainty in the eurozone’s third- biggest economy, Italy’s blue-chip share index was up more than 2%, as banks recovered from a rout and government bond yields moved sharply lower in early trade.
On Tuesday, when a snap election looked very likely, a sell-off of Italian debt caused the biggest one-day rise in twoyear bond yields since 1992.
Ordinary Italians were relieved by the end of political deadlock, but wanted action to solve their daily problems. “They need to be more quiet and do more. There is too much talking, just like I’m talking now,” said Rome pensioner Lino Cozzalini. “At the end of the day what is resolved?”
Salvini, head of the farright, anti-immigrant League, and Di Maio, who leads 5-Star, a grassroots movement set up by comic Beppe Grillo that has never been in government before, will both become deputy prime ministers.
Salvini will also be interior minister, with authority over immigration, and Di Maio gets the labour and industry portfolio.
Those potent combinations raise the question of how much power will be left for Conte, who never ran for office and whom most Italians had never heard of before last week.
“The Populists Take the Government” was the headline in the left-leaning La Repubblica newspaper, adding in a commentary that many of the cabinet members had rightwing views on a host of issues.
The coalition’s programme had not changed since it was presented at their first attempt to form a government last week. – Reuters