ROME — Italy’s president swore in western Europe’s first populist government Friday, featuring a mix of anti-establishment and right-wing ministers who have promised an “Italy first” agenda that has alarmed Europe’s political establishment.
ROME — Italy’s president swore in western Europe’s first populist government Friday, featuring a mix of anti-establishment and right-wing ministers who have promised an “Italy first” agenda that has alarmed Europe’s political establishment.
The continent’s euroskeptic politicians cheered the birth of the new Italian government coalition of the 5-Star Movement and the right-wing League party. Milan’s stock market rose after a last-minute deal Thursday averted the threat of an early election that could have turned into a referendum on whether Italy should ditch the shared euro currency.
President Sergio Mattarella, who negotiated through three months of political deadlock to finally find a workable government, presided over the ceremony Friday in the gilded Quirinale Palace. Eighteen ministers — five of them women — took the oath of office, pledging to observe Italy’s constitution and work exclusively in the interests of the nation.
The ministers feature a mix of 5-Star and League loyalists, with the key economy ministry going to a mainstream economist close to the center-right Forza Italia party of ex-Premier Silvio Berlusconi. Mattarella had vetoed the 5-Star-League’s first proposed candidate for economy minister because of his euroskeptic views.
The new minister for public administration is defense attorney Giulia Bongiorno, a center-right lawmaker legendary for defending ex-Premier Giulio Andreotti against mafia collusion charges and more recently, defending the ex-boyfriend of American student Amanda Knox against murder charges.
The ceremony capped a roller-coaster week of political and financial turmoil that saw stock markets around the world plunge and Italy’s borrowing rates soar on the threat of a new election in Europe’s third-largest economy.
It also came on the eve of the day that Italians celebrate Republic Day, the day in 1946 when Italy abolished the monarchy and gave birth to the First Republic.
The improbably fast rise of the grassroots 5-Star Movement and its alliance with the right-wing, anti-immigrant League has been dubbed the birth of Italy’s Third Republic, after Italy’s post-war political order was largely drubbed in the March 4 national vote.
