Italy Set for New Coalition After President Gives Conte Mandate

(Bloomberg) -- Giuseppe Conte secured his return as Italy’s prime minister less than a month after being forced from power, this time as the head of a coalition with both populists and establishment politicians.

The 55-year-old Conte, an unknown Florence law professor just over a year ago, will get a second chance to lead Italy’s government after formally accepting a mandate from President Sergio Mattarella on Wednesday.

Mattarella last week tasked Conte with putting together a working majority between the anti-establishment Five Star Movement, the senior party in Italy’s last government, and the center-left Democrats, who’ve led three of the last four administrations.

In returning to the 16th century Palazzo Chigi prime minister’s residence, Conte skilfully outmaneuvered his former deputy Matteo Salvini of the rightist League, who spooked investors early last month with a surprise mid-summer bid to force snap elections.

To contact the reporter on this story: John Follain in Rome at jfollain2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Chad Thomas at cthomas16@bloomberg.net, Jerrold Colten, Dan Liefgreen

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