Italy heads for new elections as PM named

ROME - Italy is likely facing fresh elections in the autumn after President Sergio Mattarella gave economist Carlo Cottarelli the mandate to form a technocrat government following the collapse of a bid for power by populist parties.

"I have accepted the mandate of forming the government as President Mattarella asked. I am very honored and obviously I will make every effort," Cottarelli said after meeting the head of state.

Cottarelli said on Monday that should his caretaker government be approved by parliament it would stay in place until new elections by the start of next year.

"I will come to parliament with a program that, if I win the vote of confidence, will include a vote on the 2019 budget. Then parliament will be dissolved, with elections at the start of 2019," Cottarelli said.

If he fails to gain approval of parliament, he added, it would mean that new elections would be held "after August", which is the most likely outcome given that only the center-left Democratic party has announced it will vote in favor of the technocrat government.

Markets had largely welcomed Mattarella's decision to put an end to the proposed government of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and right-wing nationalist League, which had insisted on Paolo Savona as economy minister. Savona, a former industry minister, has questioned whether Italy should ditch the euro as its currency.

Financial markets had been nervous about the prospects of Savona as the chief of Italy's economy. Italian stocks have so far lost more than 8 percent of their value this month, while yields on bonds, a measure of investor jitters about a country's economic prospects, shot up.

Mattarella's veto on Sunday enraged both League leader Matteo Salvini and the 5-Stars' Luigi Di Maio, who threatened to start impeachment proceedings against him.

Mattarella, however, took pains to explain that he was fully in his constitutional right and duty to reject Savona as economy minister, saying he had repeatedly asked for a minister who wouldn't be perceived as entertaining Italy's exit from the euro.

"Sticking with the euro is a fundamentally important choice for our country and our young people," Mattarella said in a late-night statement at the Qurinale Palace. "If you want to discuss it, it should have been done openly and with a serious debate," which he noted hadn't been part of the electoral campaign.

Cottarelli, for his part, is an economist who assisted a former center-left government in slashing public spending.

A technical government will still be subject to votes of confidence in both houses of Parliament, and the 5-Stars and League made clear Cottarelli wouldn't have their support.

In an interview on Monday, Salvini said Mattarella "didn't give the center-right the chance to form a government because we didn't have the votes, and now Mr Cottarelli arrives without any votes? It seems a stretch," Salvini said.

Salvini also warned ex-prime minister Silvio Berlusconi against voting for Cottarelli's government. In a statement late Sunday, the three-time premier took a much more measured tone about the collapse of the 5-Star-League experiment, refusing to criticize Mattarella.

Berlusconi had never endorsed the populist attempt at government, but hadn't impeded it either. He has as much to gain from a new election as the League, which has seen its popularity only rise in weeks after the March 4 election resulted in a hung parliament.

Afp - Ap - Xinhua

(China Daily 05/29/2018 page11)