Italian foreign minister tapped to be premier and form the next government

Reporting from ROME —  Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni was chosen Sunday to be the country’s next premier and pledged to get straight to work on forming a new coalition with the same Democratic Party-led majority.

“I’m aware of the urgency to give Italy a government in the fullness of its powers, to reassure the citizens and to face with utmost commitment and determination international, economic and social priorities, starting with the reconstruction of the quake-hit areas,” the 62-year-old Gentiloni said.

Fellow Democrat Matteo Renzi has been staying on as premier in a caretaker role since he offered his resignation last week, after his nearly 3-year-old government suffered a stinging defeat in a referendum on reforms.

The populist Five Star Movement and other opposition forces have been clamoring for an early election, but Italian President Sergio Mattarella noticed that Renzi’s outgoing government still commands a majority in Parliament.

On Saturday, the day before he gave Gentiloni the mandate at the Quirinale presidential palace, Mattarella said Italy’s next government must deal with several urgent priorities, including bad loans that are burdening several Italian banks, an economy that has resisted growing for years and an ambitious construction program for several towns destroyed by earthquakes.

The president also noted there was wide political consensus for a rapid overhaul of Italy’s electoral law before Italians vote in a new election.

Gentiloni said he’d make the president’s priorities his top concerns as he puts together his proposed Cabinet. He told reporters that he considered Mattarella’s decision to entrust him with the task of forming a new government “a high honor, and I’ll try to carry out the task with dignity and responsibility.”

Gentiloni had emerged as a likely pick after the president held three days of consultations with political and parliamentary leaders.

As foreign minister in Renzi’s center-left coalition, Gentiloni had lobbied for international support to help end years of violence and fighting in Libya. The North African nation’s lawless coast has turned into a vast launching pad for smugglers, who collect millions in profits as they send hundreds of thousands of migrants out in unseaworthy boats toward Italian shores.

Gentiloni also spearheaded Italy’s demands that the Egyptian government find out who tortured and killed a young Italian researcher in Cairo this year.

The Five Star populists, who back letting Italians decide if they want to stay in the 19-nation shared euro currency zone, want elections soon, to capitalize on the angry mood of voters who have punished ruling parties in much of Europe.

It is up to the Italian president to decide if or when to dissolve Parliament and call for a new election ahead of a spring 2018 due date.

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