President Giorgio Napolitano was set to appoint Renzi after a day of consultations with political leaders including disgraced former premier and opposition leader Silvio Berlusconi.
The anti-establishment Five Star Movement protested at what it called an undemocratic power grab by Renzi and boycotted the talks with Napolitano, saying Italians should be allowed to choose through elections. Letta stepped down on Friday after the Democratic Party approved a motion calling for a new government proposed by the 39-year-old Renzi, an ambitious former Boy Scout who was elected to the party leadership in December.
Renzi would be Italy’s youngest-ever prime minister if his bid succeeds and has promised a radical programme of reforms to combat rampant unemployment, boost growth and slash the costs of Italy’s weighty bureaucratic machine.
Opinion polls show Renzi enjoys high popularity ratings, mainly because as someone with no experience in national government or parliament, he is seen as a welcome breath of fresh air in Italy’s discredited political system. But surveys also indicate that most Italians would have preferred early elections and are opposed to what critics dismissed as a ‘palace coup’ engineered by Renzi following weeks of increasingly bitter feuding with Letta.
Investors are betting on a Renzi government pushing through key reforms, however, with stocks rising as Letta resigned on Friday and Moody’s ratings agency improving its outlook for Italy from negative to stable.
Italy’s economy showed signs of emerging from a devastating recession, with a preliminary estimate on Friday showing it grew 0.1 percent in the last quarter of 2013, the first positive result in two years.
Renzi govt ‘not a given’
Napolitano began his day of consultations at 0900 GMT on Saturday by meeting the smallest parties in parliament and will work his way through to a final meeting with the Democratic Party scheduled for 1815 GMT.
The anti-establishment Five Star Movement protested at what it called an undemocratic power grab by Renzi and boycotted the talks with Napolitano, saying Italians should be allowed to choose through elections. Letta stepped down on Friday after the Democratic Party approved a motion calling for a new government proposed by the 39-year-old Renzi, an ambitious former Boy Scout who was elected to the party leadership in December.
Renzi would be Italy’s youngest-ever prime minister if his bid succeeds and has promised a radical programme of reforms to combat rampant unemployment, boost growth and slash the costs of Italy’s weighty bureaucratic machine.
Opinion polls show Renzi enjoys high popularity ratings, mainly because as someone with no experience in national government or parliament, he is seen as a welcome breath of fresh air in Italy’s discredited political system. But surveys also indicate that most Italians would have preferred early elections and are opposed to what critics dismissed as a ‘palace coup’ engineered by Renzi following weeks of increasingly bitter feuding with Letta.
Investors are betting on a Renzi government pushing through key reforms, however, with stocks rising as Letta resigned on Friday and Moody’s ratings agency improving its outlook for Italy from negative to stable.
Italy’s economy showed signs of emerging from a devastating recession, with a preliminary estimate on Friday showing it grew 0.1 percent in the last quarter of 2013, the first positive result in two years.
Renzi govt ‘not a given’
Napolitano began his day of consultations at 0900 GMT on Saturday by meeting the smallest parties in parliament and will work his way through to a final meeting with the Democratic Party scheduled for 1815 GMT.