Italy crisis: populists set to form government

New coalition ends months of uncertainty
for fourth largest EU economy

One-Minute Read

Representatives for the anti-immigrant, hard-Right League party
and the anti-establishment Five Star Movement presented a revised
list of ministers to Italian president Sergio Mattarella, who gave
the new-look coalition his approval.

The parties came close to forming a government last weekend,
before Mattarella “torpedoed” incoming prime minister Giuseppe
Conte’s choice for foreign minister, says The Daily Telegraph.

The nominee, Paolo Savona, was a noted Eurosceptic who has
described Italy’s adoption of the Euro as a “historic error” and
called for Italy to consider leaving the EU.

Under the new agreement, the role of foreign minister will be
given to Giovanni Tria, an economics professor at Rome’s Tor
Vergata university who is “in favour of Italy’s continued
membership of the single currency”, the BBC says.

Conte’s coalition government is due to be sworn in later
today.