ROME: Italy’s new government, combining the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and centre-left Democratic Party (PD), was sworn into office on Thursday, promising to reset Rome’s often fraught relations with Brussels. Once bitter rivals, the two parties agreed to join forces after the farright League walked out of the previous coalition with 5-Star in a failed effort to trigger early elections.
The eurosceptic League constantly railed against EU budget and migration rules, but the new EU affairs minister promised a more harmonious future, pointing out that both the PD and 5-Star had backed the new Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen.
“The parties in this government will do their utmost not to quarrel with Brussels, not to have pointless fights or rows, but rather to put forward new ideas,” said the new minister, Vincenzo Amendola, a member of the pro-European PD. The PD has taken charge not just of the EU affairs ministry but also the economy ministry, which has been in the front line of recent battles with Brussels, and former PD prime minister Paolo Gentiloni was named as Italy’s next EU commissioner.
Gentiloni is likely to get the powerful job in the EU body of economic and monetary affairs commissioner, a PD source told Reuters. That would be a bitter pill to swallow for League leader Matteo Salvini, whose party had been due to name Rome’s commissioner after it triumphed at European parliamentary elections in May, taking 34% of the vote. Italy was previously expected to get a less prestigious Commission job due to the League’s hostile relationship with Brussels.
The prospect of improved EU relations has cheered investors and Italian bonds have rallied this past week, with 10-year yields falling below 1.0%, meaning that heavily indebted Italy’s borrowing costs should also fall.
The yields stood above 1.5% at the start of August. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, a law professor with no party affiliation, led his new team of seven women and 14 men in the swearing-in ceremony in the gilded presidential palace. Italy’s 67th government since World War Two contains few political heavyweights, with the emphasis more on youth than experience. “We know very well that the parties which make up this coalition have had major clashes over the years.
It is a difficult road ahead, but what matters is the spirit,” said Dario Franceschini, a PD stalwart and the new culture minister. In the clearest break from the past government, the interior ministry, previously headed by the League’s tough-talking leader Salvini, was handed to a career civil servant and immigration specialist Luciana Lamorgese. – AFP
