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Giuseppe Conte: Italy's next PM to form western Europe's first populist government

Eric J. Lyman
Special to USA TODAY
Giuseppe Conte smiles during a meeting in Rome in this photo taken March 1, 2018.

ROME — The little-known law professor with no political experience picked to be Italy’s next prime minister received a mandate Wednesday from President Sergio Mattarella to try to form western Europe's first populist government. 

Mattarella met with Conte for nearly two hours amid nervous markets and concerns in Brussels that Europe’s third-largest economy was embarking on a populist plunge.

Giuseppe Conte, 53, emerged this week as the choice of Italy’s two main populist parties after 11 weeks of stop-and-start negotiations since the general election. Few Italians had even heard of the Conte before his name surfaced as the likely compromise candidate to head a new coalition government once it is finally formed. 

Conte, who was nominated by the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and the nationalist League party, said he'll be a "defense lawyer" for all Italians. 

“As a low-key figure without a real national profile, Conte was already an unusual choice to be prime minister,” said Gian Franco Gallo, a political analyst with Milan’s ABS Securities.

Conte’s 12-page résumé includes studies at Yale, New York University, the Sorbonne and Cambridge. But NYU said it had no record of Conte studying there. He claimed at least one month of studies at NYU for five consecutive years ending in 2012. The New York Times first reported the discrepancy. 

Italian media pointed out other questionable claims about Conte's studies.

The developments put the 5-Star Movement on the defensive, saying Conte's statements were accurate. Conte “fine-tuned and updated his studies and never claimed he got a degree from the university, the party said Tuesday in a statement. 

“This is obviously less than ideal as a first impression, but I think the developments will hurt his prestige more than his candidacy,” said Flavio Chiapponi, a political scientist at the University of Pavia and author of a book about the 5-Star Movement.

The issue over Conte was a surprise since the March 4 election and the strong showing by the anti-establishment parties, who will form Italy's first populist government. 

Five-Star Movement leader Luigi Di Maio talks to the media, as he arrives at the Lower House in Rome, on May 22, 2018.

The 5-Star Movement, founded seven years ago by comedian-turned-activist Beppe Grillo, was the top vote-getter. Until now, the party has never run a government bigger than the city governments in Rome and Turin.

The League, which has a nationalist, anti-migrant platform, has been a junior partner in previous governments, but never under its current leader, Matteo Salvini. The League finished third in the March vote. Combined with the Five-Star Movement, the two parties hold a slim majority of seats in parliament. 

The two parties, which still must firm up a coalition government, have proposed a  dramatic crackdown on migrants living in Italy and greater autonomy for the country within the European Union, including a possible referendum on Italy’s role in the 19-nation euro currency zone.

Their populist priorities include a plan to lower taxes and increase government spending, including the creation of a minimum income for all Italians and a flat income tax, platforms that raised concerns among European economists and investors. The party leaders said they will seek to offset the costs by calling on the European Central Bank to write off as much as $300 million in Italian debt.

Conte was praised as a lawyer, although it was unclear how politically savvy he would be.

Franco Pavoncello, president of Rome’s John Cabot University, where Conte serves on the Board of Trustees, described him as “reserved, capable, accomplished, respected and effective.”

Pavoncello noted that Conte, as prime minister, would have the least political experience since the first term of media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi in 1994. Berlusconi's lengthy political career included several scandals and charges for bribery, tax fraud and paying a minor for sex.

“Conte is as much as a political newcomer as Berlusconi was at the start, but that is surely the only important parallel between the two,” Pavoncello said.

Conte’s educational background made him an unusual choice for prime minister,  because the two party leaders — Luigi Di Maio, 31, of the Five-Star Movement, and the League's Salvini, 45 — both dropped out of college. 

Still, several Italians remain hopeful about the new government.

“I want to give him a try,” said Martina Rondi, 37, a high school administrator from Rome. “Almost all politicians are corrupt. Maybe we need a smart and honest outsider. I can say he can’t do much worse than the recent” prime ministers.

Adele Palmero, 71, a retired city administrator, agreed. “I know I don’t want Berlusconi back in charge, and I really don’t want Di Maio or Salvini,” she said. “Conte? I didn’t know anything about him until the last couple of days. But why not give him his chance? Maybe he can surprise us. If not, we can move on to the next one.”

 

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