Former Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte officially took the reins on Saturday of the 5 Star Movement (M5S), the largest party in parliament in Rome, now deeply divided and lagging behind in opinion polls.
To read also: Giuseppe Conte: the Italian “puppet” hid a fine negotiator
Mr. Conte, who resigned from his post in January, was approached several months ago to take over the controls of the M5S and revive this formation claiming to be “
anti-system
”.
But his appointment was delayed by picrocholine struggles.
An online vote, which gathered some 62,000 people and for which Mr. Conte was the only candidate, confirmed his nomination late Friday evening with nearly 93% of the votes.
Giuseppe Conte has promised to continue supporting Mario Draghi, who in February took the head of a national unity government tasked with putting Italy back afloat, whose economy was devastated by the Covid-19 pandemic. He told the daily
Il Fatto Quotidiano
that the M5S would work to "
bring loyal cooperation to the government of a country which has yet to emerge from the health emergency
".
Giuseppe Conte was at the head of two governments formed by coalitions led by the 5 Star Movement but was never elected. He was brought to power after the resounding victory in the 2018 legislative elections of the M5S, founded by a comedian in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. But today, even if this movement is part of the coalition government of Mario Draghi and remains the first party in the Italian Parliament, its popularity is declining.
