It's official: Paolo Gentiloni has been appointed by the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella to form a new government, following the resignation of Matteo Renzi which occurred immediately after the defeat in the constitutional referendum. Gentiloni, as usual, accepted with reserve, and will in all likelihood choose the team of ministers tomorrow (Monday) and be sworn in by Tuesday.
"I thank the President of the Republic for the task he has given me - said Gentiloni immediately after the appointment -. First of all, concern about the new electoral rules is needed. Renzi's consistency deserves respect. We will move within the framework of the outgoing majority, creating a government with full powers, to reassure our citizens and to face the international, economic and social problems that await us with the utmost commitment".
Gentiloni, who was foreign minister in the outgoing government, he had been in pole position for at least a couple of days: the Democratic Party has in fact indicated his name for the succession to Renzi, who had immediately hinted that he would not accept an encore assignment. The new government, not appreciated by the oppositions who called for very short elections, will therefore have full powers, as already explained by Mattarella on Saturday, and will not be finished, because the Constitution does not provide for it. Italy's internal and international commitments, and above all the crux of the electoral law, would therefore lead one to think of yes elections in the shortest possible time, but not by winter as some initially assumed. This Executive will hardly complete the legislature, but it will be equally difficult to vote before the end of spring.
Who is Paolo Gentiloni
Born in Rome in 1954 (he has just turned 22 on 62 November), Gentiloni has been the foreign minister of the Renzi government for the past two years (appointed on 31 October 2014). Of noble origins, a professional journalist, he directed the Legambiente magazine and was a spokesman for Francesco Rutelli starting in 1993, at the time of his first election as mayor of Rome. In Rome he also held the position of assessor for the Jubilee and for Tourism. Gentiloni then made his debut in Parliament in 2001, elected to the Chamber of Deputies. From 17 May 2006 to 8 May 2008 he was also Minister of Communications in the second Prodi government. His reference party was La Margherita, and he was then among the first to promote the formation of the Democratic Party. His latest political experience has not exactly been a success: candidate in the centre-left primaries for the 2014 municipal elections in Rome, he ranks only in third place clearly preceded by the future mayor Ignazio Marino and the journalist David Sassoli.
