Italy: Western Europe’s First Populist Government Starts Business, Will Outline Agenda to Parliament

ROME (AP) – Italy’s populist government will present its agenda to Parliament, where the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and right-wing League have slim majorities that are expected to give Premier Giuseppe Conte the necessary votes of confidence to start governing.

In his first policy statement, Conte addresses the upper Senate chamber on Tuesday and the lower Chamber of Deputies on Wednesday, capping an extraordinary week that saw the installation of Western Europe’s first populist government after three months of political and financial turmoil.

Conte’s address is expected to draw heavily from the 5-Star-League’s 57-page government agenda, which calls for a two-tiered flat tax, a basic income for poor Italians and pension reform – a heavy spending platform that economists and EU policymakers worry will increase the country’s debt burden, already Europe’s heaviest after Greece.