Italy’s Conte Clears Final Hurdle Before Meetings With EU Chiefs
Italy’s Conte Clears Final Hurdle Before Meetings With EU Chiefs
(Bloomberg) -- Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte won the second of two confidence votes in parliament, ending the political turmoil that gripped Italy since Matteo Salvini made a failed attempt to force early elections.
The Senate backed Conte’s new coalition of the populist Five Star Movement and the center-left Democratic Party, or PD, with 169 votes in favor on Tuesday, a day after an earlier victory in the lower house. Salvini of the rightist League ditched the previous Five Star-League coalition in early August, but was outmaneuvered by Conte.
The confidence votes mean the government can start work on priorities including the 2020 budget, which has to be approved by parliament by the end of the year.
In a speech to senators earlier Tuesday, Conte hailed the appointment of ex-premier Paolo Gentiloni, of the PD, as the new European Commission’s watchdog of national budgets. Gentiloni “will represent the whole of Italy,” he said.
The premier reiterated an appeal for a review of the EU’s stability and growth pact “to support economic growth and renewable development,” urging more investment in the depressed south of Italy.
He’ll be able to press his case for EU reform Wednesday, when he travels to Brussels to meet European Commission President-elect Ursula von der Leyen, and the current president, Jean-Claude Juncker. He will also see the incoming president of the European Council, Charles Michel, and that of the European Parliament, David Sassoli.
Amid protests from League lawmakers, Conte denounced Salvini for trying to trigger early general elections “with arrogance and with little knowledge of constitutional law.”
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, Alessandro Speciale, Dan Liefgreen
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