MILAN – Italy’s president has tapped politically inexperienced law professor Giuseppe Conte to be the premier who will head Italy’s first populist government.
The president’s office announced Thursday that Conte had accepted the role and would be sworn in Friday afternoon with Cabinet ministers.
Conte read the list of ministers and told reporters in a brief statement: “We will work with determination to improve the quality of life of all Italians. ”
The announcement indicated that President Sergio Mattarella had accepted all of the ministers proposed by the anti-EU 5-Star Movement and League on their second try. The populists’ choice for a euroskeptic economy minister was the sticking point that led their first attempt to form a government to fail last weekend.
5-Star Movement leader Luigi Di Maio and League leader Matteo Salvini came up with a compromise earlier Thursday that led the president to postpone trying to install a technical government until a new election could be held.
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