Italy unveils new Government after two-month deadlock

Italy’s Prime Minister unveiled a new coalition Government on Saturday, finally breaking a two-month stalemate in the recession-hit country which had tested the patience of European partners with a motley team including Silvio Berlusconi’s protege.

Centre-left moderate Enrico Letta named as his deputy Angelino Alfano — a move aimed at appeasing the Right but which angered critics of billionaire tycoon Berlusconi, who they claim will have the reins of power in his grasp.

Fabrizio Saccomanni, a director at Italy’s central bank, was handed the post of Finance and Economy Minister, tasked with dragging the eurozone’s third-largest economy from its worst recession in 20 years under the watchful gaze of concerned international partners.

Emma Bonino, a former European Commissioner and rights campaigner, will be the new Foreign Minister in a new government with a “strong female element,” noted Letta.

Alfano will also hold the post of Interior Minister while his predecessor in that job, Anna Maria Cancellieri, will run the Justice Ministry.

The new Cabinet was expected to be officially sworn in today and Letta has said he wants to move quickly to tackle the social fallout of the recession by tackling unemployment and moving away from austerity imposed by his predecessor Mario Monti.

The Centre-Left — ridden with internal divisions since winning the general election in February but without the majority to govern — welcomed the new appointments.

“We have a Government and, in a difficult international setting, finally the political arena is giving a sign,” said rising Democratic Party (PD) star Matteo Renzi.

The main employers’ lobby Confindustria also greeted the news, saying the new ministers “will make a real stamp on Italy’s future” and calling on the Government to make their priority boosting growth.

Letta had earlier said he was determined to renew confidence in the country’s scandal-hit and bickering political institutions, but some were not convinced by his choices.

“Old names to resolve old problems. We’re not going to find solutions this way,” said Vito Crimi, head in the senate of the protest Five Star Movement, which won a quarter of the vote in February and is now an opposition party.

Former comedian Beppe Grillo, who founded the movement, described it as “the night of the Republic.”

Anti-mafia prosecutor Antonio Di Pietro went further: “Berlusconi, with this Government, is assured impunity and the country has been condemned.”

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