IN MANY another country, Giuseppe Conte would be politically a dead man walking. Instead, on May 23rd, he was asked to form Italy’s next government.
Despite a controversy that cast doubt on Mr Conte’s truthfulness, President Sergio Mattarella asked the little-known law professor to seek the backing of parliament for western Europe’s first all-populist cabinet. He is likely to succeed. The 53-year-old Mr Conte, who vowed to be “the defence counsel of the Italian people”, was a compromise candidate chosen by the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) and the hard-right Northern League after it became apparent that neither would let the other have the top job. Together, the M5S and the League have a solid majority of 37 in the 630-seat Chamber of Deputies, though a slimmer edge in the Senate.
Luigi Di Maio, leader of the M5S, and Matteo Salvini, head of the League, brushed aside evidence that Mr Conte had padded his professional CV with courses abroad that he had neither taken...Continue reading
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