Italy’s new government wins 1st of 2 confidence votes
ROME — Premier Paolo Gentiloni easily won a vote of confidence Tuesday night from the Italian Parliament’s lower chamber for his new government, overcoming opposition outrage that his cabinet and agenda essentially mirror those of his humiliated predecessor.
Despite pledges by opposition lawmakers from the anti-European Union Northern League and the populist 5-Star Movement to stay away from the vote in protest of Gentiloni’s “photocopied” Cabinet, the measure passed 368-105 with no abstentions among the lawmakers present.
Opposition politicians say that by retaining so many ministers from ex-Premier Matteo Renzi’s cabinet, Gentiloni ignored the results of a Dec. 4 constitutional referendum in which Italians overwhelmingly rejected Renzi and his reforms.
The Senate is expected to vote on its own confidence motion Wednesday. Approval from both houses is required for the government already sworn in by President Sergio Mattarella to carry on its mandate.