Italy’s Conte Sets Out Pro-Europe Course, Wins Confidence Vote
Italy’s Conte Sets New Pro-Europe Course Amid Spending Promises
(Bloomberg) -- Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte won the first of two confidence votes in parliament after pledging to draw a line under Italy’s past clashes with the European Union and vowing to work closely with Brussels on a 2020 budget featuring lower labor taxes and a minimum wage.
The Florence law professor, 55, who described himself as “the people’s lawyer” when he first took office as premier last year, is seeking parliamentary approval for his new government. With the confidence-measure victory in the lower house Monday, all that remains is a vote in the Senate on Tuesday.
“It is within the perimeter of the EU and not outside that we must seek the well-being of Italians,” Conte said in parliament. His new coalition, which brings together the anti-establishment Five Star Movement and the mainstream Democratic Party, will work closely with the new European Commission, the premier said. Conte pointedly recalled his success in twice warding off infringement procedures by the Commission.
Investors have welcomed the new government, reassured by the absence of League leader Matteo Salvini -- who had sparked conflicts with Brussels with his spending plans and anti-European rhetoric -- and by pledges of warmer ties with the EU. Conte can also draw on the Brussels contacts of Finance Minister Roberto Gualtieri, a veteran European lawmaker.
Conte said “the biggest challenge” in drafting the 2020 budget will be avoiding an automatic sales-tax hike and cutting taxes on labor. With his government looking to save about 23 billion euros ($25 billion) just to avoid the increase, Conte said he’ll cut wasteful state spending and reform tax expenditures.
Conte also pledged to lower the fiscal burden and make kindergarten free for average and low-income families from next year. Amid his other promises, he mentioned working for an EU-wide minimal tax rate on companies, speeding up trials that routinely last years, and halting new permits for oil and gas drilling.
“Elections! Elections!”
Conte’s biggest applause line came when when he reaffirmed a pledge to cut the number of lawmakers in parliament. But League lawmakers raucously chanted, “Elections! Elections!” as he ended his speech.
Their leader, Salvini, was absent, choosing instead to lead an anti-government rally outside parliament.
“Here in the square there is a part of Italy, which I believe is a majority in the country, which demands elections,” he said.
Conte promised a “progressive and inexorable review” of highway concessions, amid calls by Five Star lawmakers to revoke contracts granted to infrastructure company Atlantia’s Autostrade per l’Italia after the fatal collapse of a bridge in Genoa last year.
“We will complete the process without any discount for private interests, our exclusive objective will be safeguarding the public interest and the memory of the 43 victims,” Conte said. Shares in Atlantia fell after the premier’s speech.
Conte said he was already working with EU partners to set up “European humanitarian corridors” for migrants who reach Italy from across the Mediterranean, tackling an issue which Salvini has long exploited.
“We want to turn our backs on the noise of useless proclamations, of bellicose and bombastic declarations,” the premier said
In another sign of warming relations between Rome and Brussels, ex-premier Paolo Gentiloni is expected to be appointed EU commissioner for economic affairs, financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore reported Monday, without saying where it got the information.
--With assistance from Tommaso Ebhardt.
To contact the reporter on this story: John Follain in Rome at jfollain2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Jerrold Colten, Alessandro Speciale
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