Italian Premier Enrico Letta’s cross-party government won a final vote of confidence vote in Parliament today, giving life to a grand coalition that aims to put aside decades of animosity to return the eurozone’s third-largest economy to growth.
Letta’s first order of business is a trip to Berlin, where he is expected to press German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the necessity of easing austerity politics that have put pressure on ordinary Italians in favor of growth policies.
Letta will take the message to Paris, where he meets President Francois Hollande on Wednesday, and then to Brussels.
The European tour aims also to demonstrate that this government wants to remain at the heart of the decision-making in Europe.
The new government was confirmed today by the Senate by a vote of 233 in favor, 59 against and 18 abstentions, a day after it easily won confirmation by the lower house. The government brings together in an uneasy coalition the center-left Democratic Party, which won the lower house in February elections but not the Senate.
Letta’s first order of business is a trip to Berlin, where he is expected to press German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the necessity of easing austerity politics that have put pressure on ordinary Italians in favor of growth policies.
Letta will take the message to Paris, where he meets President Francois Hollande on Wednesday, and then to Brussels.
The European tour aims also to demonstrate that this government wants to remain at the heart of the decision-making in Europe.
The new government was confirmed today by the Senate by a vote of 233 in favor, 59 against and 18 abstentions, a day after it easily won confirmation by the lower house. The government brings together in an uneasy coalition the center-left Democratic Party, which won the lower house in February elections but not the Senate.