President to hold talks after populists name pick for PM

ROME: Italy’s president was to hold consultations yesterday after anti-establishment and far-right party leaders proposed little-known lawyer Giuseppe Conte as prime minister of a nascent populist coalition government.

President Sergio Mattarella planned to receive the speaker of the lower house, Roberto Fico, and the head of the upper house, Elisabetta Alberti Casellati.

Mr Conte, 54, was proposed to Mr Mattarella during talks held at the head of state’s offices with Five Star Movement leader Luigi Di Maio and nationalist League chief Matteo Salvini.

“We have indicated the name of Giuseppe Conte to the President of the Republic,” Mr Di Maio wrote on the official blog of Five Star (M5S), after meeting the president in Rome on Monday evening. “I’m very proud of this name because he is the Five Star Movement in a nutshell — he won’t burden the Italian public.”

Mr Salvini later confirmed that Mr Conte was also the League’s pick for prime minister in a live video on Facebook to his more than 2 million followers.

“Conte is an expert in simplification, cutting of red tape and streamlining of the administrative machine, which is what many businesses ask of us,” Mr Salvini said.

A specialist in administrative law, Mr Conte was presented before March’s inconclusive general election as Mr Di Maio’s ministerial pick to streamline Italy’s notorious bureaucracy.

Both Mr Di Maio and Mr Salvini had previously railed against the possibility of a technical government being put in place after doubts were raised over whether a coalition could be formed.

But the two leaders brushed off journalists’ questions when asked why a relative unknown had been chosen as prime minister nominee.

“He was in my team. Eleven million Italians voted for him,” Mr Di Maio said as he left the presidential Quirinal palace, while Mr Salvini said “all prime ministers are political”.

Mr Mattarella did not reveal on Monday whether he agreed with the two parties’ pick. The president’s endorsement is crucial if they are to seek approval for a new government in parliament.

Should Mr Conte receive Mr Mattarella’s blessing, he will then have to present the president with a team of ministers.

“We have clear ideas on the ministers,” Mr Salvini said.

In the meantime, the president will also examine the two parties’ joint programme, overwhelmingly approved by party members over the weekend in a public nonbinding vote.

The 58-page “Contract for the Government of Change” does not mention a unilateral exit from the euro zone, unlike previous versions leaked to the media, but it rejects post-financial-crisis austerity policies and features hard-line immigration and security proposals.

The document’s costly financial measures and eurosceptic tone have worried financial markets, as has Mr Conte’s nomination as prime minister.

The Milan stock exchange closed down 1.5%. The spread — the difference between Italian and German 10-year borrowing rates — has shot up 55 basis points to 186 in less than a week.

But, according to a poll published Sunday in La Repubblica newspaper, 60% of Italians say they support a LeagueM5S government.

Little is known about Mr Conte beyond his complete lack of political experience and solid career in law and academia. He is Mr Di Maio’s personal lawyer.

Mr Conte’s first and so far only encounter with the Italian public was at a pre-election presentation of M5S’s government team in which he spoke at length about radical overhauls to the legal system.