PM Amato's new government sworn in
PM Amato's new government sworn in
ROME (AP): Premier Giuliano Amato was sworn into office on
Wednesday along with a rehashed center-left coalition already
looking frayed after one of his choices refused to take up his
ministry post.
Amato, a respected treasury minister in the 18-month-long
government of Massimo D'Alema which collapsed last week, is
expected to put his government, formed Tuesday evening, to the
required confidence votes in both chambers of Parliament in the
next couple of days.
Almost immediately after being named by Amato on Tuesday
night, Edo Ronchi, from the Greens, refused to serve as minister
for European Union relations after he - and his party - didn't
get to keep the environment ministry.
Amato will temporarily take on the EU relations post until a
new minister is named.
Italian news reports gave varying estimates of how many
deputies Amato should be able to count on in a confidence vote in
the Chamber of Deputies, venturing that the new premier should be
able to command from about 318 to 320 votes in the 630-seat lower
house.
Winning a confidence vote takes 50 percent plus one. He should
have a wider edge in the Senate.
Chamber whips were scheduled to meet in the early evening to work
out a timetable for the vote.
The center-left, squabbling since it came to power in 1996
under Romano Prodi, set aside disputes in a bid to stay in power
until parliamentary elections scheduled for spring 2001.
After the center-left was trounced in April 16 regional
elections by forces backed by media mogul and conservative
opposition leader Silvio Berlusconi, the coalition told D'Alema
he had to go.
The partners lined up behind Amato, who as Socialist premier
in the early 1990s won a reputation for courageously slashing
away at Italy's huge budget deficit.
Berlusconi lashed out at the new government.
"It's a formation that speaks for itself, put in place with the
sole purpose of keeping the left in power," said Berlusconi, who
had unsuccessfully lobbied President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi to call
elections a year ahead of schedule. Berlusconi was premier in
1994.
As Ronchi's refusal made clear, despite the center-left's
eagerness to stay in power, it was tough going coming up with a
Cabinet.
"All told, it wasn't easy," Amato said, referring to his
efforts since Italy's president asked him on Friday to come up
with a new government.
Among the same faces are Lamberto Dini, a moderate who remains
foreign minister, and Vincenzo Visco, a member of the Democrat
Left, a former Communist party, who switches from finance
minister to treasury and budget minister.
Many others kept their posts or switched Cabinet departments.
"It's a photocopy of the D'Alema government," said Berlusconi
ally Roberto Maroni of the autonomy-seeking Northern League.
Amato's coalition ranges from former Communists to Communist
hard-liners to liberal former Christian Democrats.
His government in the early 1990s included several men who
were later discredited by the Clean Hands kickback scandals, but
Amato's integrity was never questioned.