Feed: Politic Yahoo UK
Posted on: Sunday, April 28, 2013 02:32
Author: Politic Yahoo UK
Subject: Italy's Letta sets moderate course with new government
By Gavin Jones ROME (Reuters) - There is much about Italy's new centre-left prime minister Enrico Letta, who named his cabinet on Saturday, that is likely to please financial markets and Rome's international partners. He is young, moderate and pro-European, and despite his low public profile he has been a member of the European political elite for many years. Letta speaks fluent English and has a sound grasp of economics. He is known for his strong relations on both sides of parliament and is the nephew of Gianni Letta, the closest aide of centre-right leader Silvio Berlusconi who is a core stakeholder in his left-right coalition government. Letta gave a characteristically restrained assessment of his new cabinet on Saturday, expressing "sober satisfaction" at the outcome of three days of talks with rival parties. At 46, he is one of the youngest Italian prime ministers since World War II. Yet with his wire-rimmed glasses and a hairline that has been receding for at least a decade, he exudes gravitas and responsibility. He has packed his government with pragmatic centrist politicians like himself or veteran technocrats like Fabrizio Saccomanni, the Bank of Italy director general who takes over the key economy ministry portfolio. Despite a low public profile he has been a member of the European political elite for many years and was a staunch supporter of outgoing Prime Minister Mario Monti's technocrat government. In accepting the job from President Giorgio Napolitano two months after February's inconclusive election he made no attempt to hide the difficulties ahead for a country mired in deep recession and led by a discredited political class. "I feel a strong responsibility on my shoulders, stronger than my shoulders' ability to support it," he told reporters. He said Italy's politicians had "lost all credibility" and appealed to the whole of parliament to back his reform efforts, including convincing the European Union to change the direction of policy which is "too focused on austerity". Letta comes from the centrist wing of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) and has had a trail-blazing career since the early 1990s when he joined the defunct Christian Democrats (DC) who dominated post-war Italian politics. At the age of 31 he was already deputy leader of the Popular Party, an offshoot of the DC, and when he became European Affairs minister in 1998 he was, at 33, the country's youngest post-war cabinet member. IN THE FAMILY He succeeded uncle Gianni as cabinet undersecretary when Romano Prodi beat Berlusconi at the 2006 election and the two men changed places again when Berlusconi won two years later. Letta has always focused on EU affairs. In the 1990s he led a Treasury Ministry committee to prepare Italy's entry into the euro and served in the European Parliament from 2004 to 2006. One of his tasks as prime minister will be to try to negotiate more budget flexibility for Italy from the EU, a position strongly supported by both the PD and Berlusconi's centre-right. But he will also have to negotiate policy differences with Berlusconi, who has called for the immediate abolition of an unpopular housing tax and the repayment to taxpayers of the 2012 levy, a measure which would put Italy's strained public finances under severe pressure. Letta may also have to be wary of his own side. The PD has imploded into numerous warring factions and many in the party abhor the idea of collaboration with the scandal-plagued Berlusconi. On the more moderate side of the party the young Florence Mayor Matteo Renzi, widely seen as the PD's rising star and a potential rival, may not want Letta to have too much success. Yet if he can navigate the obstacles and push through a reform of the electoral law and measures to help the economy, he has the credentials to be a dominant figure in Italian politics for the next decade. (Editing by Stephen Powell) |
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