Italy’s New Premier Passes First Hurdle, But Alarms Markets
- Conte wins confidence vote in Senate, faces lower-house ballot
- Premier pledges populist measures, public spending, tax cuts
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Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte passed his first parliamentary hurdle, but alarmed markets with a maiden speech pledging a raft of populist measures from boosting spending on the poor and the jobless to sweeping tax cuts.
The Senate, where the 53-year-old law professor’s coalition has a thin majority, voted by 171 votes in favor of the government, with 117 against, in a confidence ballot, after Conte promised a “citizen’s income” for the poor as well as curbs on immigration, and called for a stronger, fairer Europe “to prevent its decline.” Conte faces a second confidence vote in the lower house on Wednesday afternoon.