Foreign Minister Gentiloni named Italian premier

Paolo Gentiloni was named as Italy’s new prime minister yesterday, filling a void left by close ally Matteo Renzi’s resignation after a crushing referendum defeat.
Gentiloni, 62, served as foreign minister under Renzi.
He was asked by President Sergio Mattarella to form a new centre-left government that will guide Italy to elections due by February 2018.
Opposition parties demanded an immediate vote, claiming that the new government would be a puppet administration with Renzi pulling the strings from behind the scenes.
“Gentiloni is Renzi’s avatar,” said Luigi Di Maio, one of the leaders of the populist Five-Star Movement (M5S).
The softly-spoken, grey-suited Gentiloni will mark a distinct change in style from the ebullient, hyper-active Renzi.
But he is expected to make only minor changes to his former boss’s team before presenting them to parliament for approval on Wednesday.
In a brief statement after meeting Mattarella, he said there was an “urgent need for a fully functioning government” to address several pressing issues.
Chief among those is a looming crisis in the troubled banking sector and ongoing relief efforts after deadly earthquakes between August and October.
The board of Italian bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena (BMPS) was yesterday locked in crisis talks that will determine whether the world’s oldest bank requires a state-funded and politically complicated rescue.
Mattarella turned to Gentiloni after opposition parties rebuffed overtures about a possible national unity government.
The president rejected the opposition’s demands for an election.
“Not by choice but out of a sense of responsibility I will be forming a government based on the outgoing majority,” Gentiloni said.
Renzi, who had been in power for two years and 10 months, resigned last week after voters overwhelmingly rejected a package of constitutional reforms.
M5S, which has led calls for immediate elections, said it would boycott Wednesday’s vote because the new government would have no legitimacy.
“This government is not even worthy of a vote against it,” said Giulia Grillo, head of the M5S group in the Senate.
Renzi meanwhile admitted on Facebook that he had found it a wrench to leave office.
“It was painful to pack the cartons yesterday evening, I’m not ashamed to say: I’m not a robot,” the 41-year-old wrote. “Only those who try to change things can help a country as beautiful and difficult as Italy.”
M5S and the far-right Northern League are demanding a vote as early as possible.
But Mattarella, who enjoys extensive executive powers during government crises, has ruled that the current electoral laws must be revised first.