Italy: A novice premier may face rival puppet-masters

Bloomberg

The way things are shaping up in Italy, the next prime minister will have to manage two heavyweight ministers with no power base of his own. And it’ll be his first proper job in politics.
Five Star leader Luigi Di Maio said he’s proposed Giuseppe Conte,
a 53-year-old law professor from
Florence University to lead a coalition government after a deal with his partner Matteo Salvini of the anti-immigrant League. If he eventually gets the job, Conte is going to face constant pressure from the two populists who drew up his policy programme.
President Sergio Mattarella will be taking his time as he considers whether to formalise his nomination for premier, amid concern about the new prime minister’s lack of political experience and his ability to contain those personal and political rivalries.
Mattarella, who met both Di Maio and Salvini, may pick a premier-designate on Wednesday or Thursday, newspaper Corriere della Sera reported. The head of state expressed his worries to both leaders about state finances and Italians’ savings, according to a senior state official who declined to be named because the talks are private.
As the official put it: if Conte is at a summit with Germany’s Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron of France, he can’t call Salvini and
Di Maio for approval every time he needs to take a position.
A dapper figure who wears three-piece suits, with a handkerchief folded in his breast-pocket, Conte is likely to have both 31-year-old Di Maio and Salvini, 45 around the cabinet table.
Di Maio is tipped as a possible
minister of labour and economic development, while Salvini could be
interior minister.
“This is uncharted territory,” said Roberto D’Alimonte, a political science professor at Rome’s Luiss University. “Will Conte be just an executor, implementing a programme decided by others? Or will he be a mediator between Five Star and the League, between the two parties and their European partners?” If nominated, Conte could face a confidence vote early next week and his first major international commitment would likely be next month’s summit of Group of Seven nations
in Canada.

Possible Tensions
While Five Star and the League are both populists, they have contrasting priorities. Five Star’s electoral stronghold is in the poorer south of Italy and its signature policy would see the state paying out at least $20 billion for a “citizen’s income.”
The League has a more right-wing constituency concentrated in the industrial north. During the election campaign it labeled Five Star’s plans as state hand-outs that would discourage people from working. Many Five Star backers see the League’s flat tax measure as favouring the rich.
While Salvini didn’t identify the candidate he’d proposed when he spoke to reporters after his meeting with Mattarella, a party official said.