Italy's president calls in former IMF official amid political turmoil

  28 May 2018    Read: 1524
Italy

Italian President Sergio Mattarella is expected to ask a former International Monetary Fund official on Monday to head a stopgap government amidst political and constitutional turmoil, with early elections looking inevitable.

Mattarella summoned Carlo Cottarelli after the anti-establishment Five Star and far-right League parties abandoned plans to form a coalition, angered by the president’s veto of their choice of a eurosceptic to become economy minister. The president was due to meet Cottarelli at 1130 am (0930 GMT).

Financial markets rallied for a while on the news that Italy’s economy, the euro zone’s third-biggest, would not be guided by a government hostile to the single currency.

However, the gains were soon wiped out and analysts warned that any Cottarelli-led government was unlikely to win a confidence vote in parliament, meaning it would serve merely as a caretaker until new elections can be held.

The 5-Star Movement is considering campaigning together with the League if the nation goes back to the polls, a 5-star source said.

 

 

Reuters


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