Italian Government: Populist actors take power

But Conte’s lack of political experience may not matter as he won’t even be the most powerful person in government. His two deputies are the leaders of the two largest parties that emerged from the inconclusive March 4 ballot, and nothing will happen without their say.

One of them, the new interior minister, promised during the election campaign to deport half a million illegal immigrants from Italy, and shared anti-migrant memes on social media. The other is the young college dropout leader of a protest party that has surged in the polls in recent years.

Matteo Salvini, the 45-year-old leader of the far-right League party who promised during the election campaign to deport half a million illegal immigrants from Italy, has become one of the new vice – prime ministers of the country as well as the new interior minister.

Hours before his party announced it would form a governing coalition, Salvini shared a video on Facebook that appeared to show an African-born man plucking a pigeon, with the words “Go home!!!”

The next Italian government is the next European crisis

Salvini often used fiery rhetoric to bolster his party’s popularity and advance a more nationalist agenda. In August 2016, Italian news agency ANSA reported it as calling for ethnic cleansing in Italy.

“We need mass ethnic cleansing in Italy, street by street, neighborhood by neighborhood, with strong manners if we need it,” ANSA reported.

During the election campaign, Salvini and the League seized on anti-immigrant sentiment in the country and pushed a Trump-style “Italians first” slogan.

Luigi Di Maio: the dropout at the head of work and industry

Luigi Di Maio speaks to the press after a meeting with Italian President Sergio Mattarella on May 21.

Five-star leader Luigi Di Maio was named the other deputy prime minister. He will also lead the Ministry of Labor and Economic Development.

The 31-year-old is the son of a neo-fascist local politician from Avellino near Naples. He was previously vice-president of the Italian lower house.

His dramatic political rise comes despite dropping out of college before earning his law degree. Before entering politics, he was a webmaster.

Giovanni Tria: The second choice for the Minister of Economy

Last week Giovanni Tria, a 69-year-old economics professor, expressed concern about some policies of the coalition government. This week, he became Italy’s economy minister.

Tria will assume the role after Italian President Sergio Mattarella vetoed the coalition’s first choice for the job, Paolo Savona, over his criticism of the euro.

Giovanni Tria, the new Italian Minister of Economy

Tria may be a more palatable name for the Italian president, but the coalition promises a spending spree and tax cuts that have rattled investors and could contain the seeds of a new European crisis. Italy’s debt hits a record 132% of GDP, the region’s second-worst ratio after Greece.

Tria has been lukewarm on the coalition’s plan to provide universal basic income – a central M5S campaign promise.

Italian political chaos is more dangerous than Brexit

“We do not yet know what this ‘citizenship income’ will be, and therefore, the necessary resources and the extent of public beneficiaries”, he writes in Formiche Magazine at the end of May.

But he was more in favor of the coalition’s proposal for a flat tax. “More interesting is the objective of the flat tax, which coincides with the objective of reducing the tax burden as a condition of a growth policy,” Tria wrote before his name was proposed for the role of the economy.

“More worrying is the fact that it is not at all clear what direction the coalition government he is forming would take on industrial policy issues,” he added.

“Their fiscal policy plans would lead to a huge increase in the deficit, a flagrant violation of EU deficit rules,” Eurasia Group analyst Federico Santi said of the coalition.

Paolo Savona: The Minister for European Affairs who is Eurosceptic

Paolo Savona has been chosen by Italian populists to be the new Minister for European Affairs.

Savona, an 81-year-old eurosceptic economist, was due to be economy minister before his appointment was blocked. Instead, he will face off against Brussels as Italy’s new EU affairs minister, which could be somewhat awkward after criticizing Germany’s economic policy in his latest book published in May.

“Germany did not change its vision of its role in Europe after the end of Nazism, even if it abandoned the idea of imposing it militarily,” he writes.

In the book, he also wrote about the need to prepare the Italian government for a “plan B” which could see the country leave the bloc.

“The authorities have a duty to prepare and implement two different plans, one necessary to stay in the EU and the euro, and the other to leave if the agreements do not change and the negative effects multiply.

He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he majored in economics in 1961 and has since had a long and distinguished career as a professor of economics, according to to his resume.

He was also Italy’s industry minister briefly between 1993 and 1994 before working with the Berlusconi government in 2005.

Lorenzo Fontana: The Radical Anti-Abortion Lawyer Overseeing Family Cases

Lorenzo Fontana has been appointed new Minister of Family and Disability.

Described in Italian media as “the most right-wing minister in the new government”, Lorenzo Fontana, 38, is now the new Minister for Family and Disability.

He studied political science at the University of Padua and history at the European University of Rome. Fontana has been a member of the League party since he was 20, according to his website.

Between 2012 and 2014, he led his delegation to European Parliament. He was also a member of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs and of the Delegation for Relations with Iraq.

But these are Fontana’s radical positions on abortion, women’s rights, LGBT rights and immigrations. on social media platforms who caught her the most attention at home.

Alfonso Bonafede: ‘Mr. Wolf’ in charge of justice

Alfonso Bonafede addressing the crowd after the exit polls on March 4.

Alfonso Bonafede assumed the role of Minister of Justice. A lawyer of Sicilian origin, he lives in Florence, where he met and collaborated with Conte.

Known in Italian media as one of Di Maio’s closest associates and friends, he was nicknamed “Mr. Wolf” for his ability to solve problems.

The lawyer began his political activity in 2006 when he started attending M5S meetings in Florence. In 2009 he would run – but ultimately lose – as a mayoral candidate against Matteo Renzi, who became the country’s prime minister between 2014 and 2016. La Repubblica newspaper reported.

Sergio Costa: the environmental warrior

The new environment minister has been named Sergio Costa, 59.

He is perhaps best known as a former environmental police chief in Naples, where he led the so-called ‘Land of the Fires’ investigation – an investigation into a multi-billion dollar scheme by the Camorra organized criminal group that allegedly illegally disposed of toxic waste. from all over the country in the region, Associated Press reported.

It was, according to local mediaformer brigadier general of the Carabinieri army and commander of the Carabinieri’s forestry branch in Campania, local media reported.

CNN’s Rory Smith, Hilary Clarke and Judith Vonberg contributed to this report.