Giuseppe Conte

Giuseppe Conte
Conte in 2018
Prime Minister of Italy
In office
1 June 2018 – 13 February 2021
PresidentSergio Mattarella
DeputyLuigi Di Maio (2018–19)
Matteo Salvini (2018–19)
Preceded byPaolo Gentiloni
Succeeded byMario Draghi
Leader of the Five Star Movement
Incumbent
Assumed office
6 August 2021
Preceded byVito Crimi (acting)
Member of the Chamber of Deputies
Incumbent
Assumed office
13 October 2022
ConstituencyLombardy 1
Personal details
Born (1964-08-08) 8 August 1964 (age 60)
Volturara Appula, Apulia, Italy
Political partyIndependent (before 2021)
M5S (since 2021)
SpouseValentina Fico (div.)[1]
Domestic partnerOlivia Paladino[2]
Children1
EducationSapienza University
Signature
This article is part of
a series about
Giuseppe Conte
  • Political offices

Prime Minister of Italy (2018–2021) President of the M5S (2021–present)

  • Premiership
  • Governments
  • President of the M5S

Giuseppe Conte (Italian pronunciation: [dʒuˈzɛppe ˈkonte]; born 8 August 1964) is an Italian jurist, academic, and politician who served as prime minister of Italy from June 2018 to February 2021.[3][4] He has been the president of the Five Star Movement (M5S) since August 2021.[5]

Conte spent the greater part of his career as a private law professor and was also a member of the Italian Bureau of Administrative Justice from 2013 to 2018. Following the 2018 Italian general election, he was proposed as the independent leader of a coalition government between the M5S and the League, despite his having never held any political position before.[6] After both parties agreed on a programme of government, he was sworn in as prime minister on 1 June by President Sergio Mattarella, appointing the M5S and League leaders as his joint deputies.[7][8] In August 2019, the League filed a motion of no confidence in the coalition government and Conte offered to resign as prime minister; the M5S and the Democratic Party agreed to form a new government, with Conte remaining at its head.[9][10][11] This made Conte the first prime minister to lead two separate Italian governments made up of right-wing and left-wing coalition partners.[12][13]

Despite having begun his political career as a technocrat,[14] appointed to implement the government programme of M5S and the League, during the final months of his first cabinet and throughout his second one Conte became an increasingly influential and popular figure in Italian politics.[15] During his premiership, he introduced important reforms including the introduction of a guaranteed minimum income, a constitutional reform to reduce the number of parliamentarians, nationalizations of ASPI (Italy's highway company), Alitalia (the Italian flag carrier), and Ilva (Italy's largest steel company),[16][17][18] as well as a stricter policy towards illegal immigration.[19] In 2020, Italy became one of the countries worst affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. His government was the first in the Western world to implement a national lockdown to stop the spread of the disease.[20][21] Despite being widely approved by public opinion, the lockdown was also described as the largest suppression of constitutional rights in the history of the Italian Republic.[22] Conte's extensive use of prime ministerial decrees to impose restrictions aimed at containing the pandemic gave rise to criticism from journalists, political analysts, and opposition politicians, even if it was widely appreciated by public opinion, as shown by several opinion polls.[23][24][25] The economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was especially severe in Italy.[26] In July 2020, to assist with the COVID-19 recession, Conte and other European leaders approved the Next Generation EU package, by which Italy will receive 209 billion euros in grants and loans from the European Recovery Fund.[27]

When Matteo Renzi's Italia Viva withdrew its support for Conte's government, it started the 2021 Italian government crisis in January.[28] Although Conte was able to win confidence votes in Parliament in the subsequent days, he chose to resign after failing to reach an absolute majority in the Senate.[29] When negotiations to form Conte's third cabinet failed, the former president of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi was asked to form a national unity government.[30]

Conte was the fifth prime minister appointed without prior political experience, after Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, Silvio Berlusconi, Lamberto Dini, and Mario Monti, as well as the first from Southern Italy since Ciriaco De Mita in 1989.[31][32] Conte was also the longest-serving independent prime minister in the history of Italy, even though he was widely seen as close to the M5S.[33][34] Because of his leadership style, Conte has often been considered one of the leading examples of techno-populism,[35][36] while his first cabinet was described by many publications, such as The New York Times and la Repubblica, as the "first modern populist government in Western Europe".[37][38][39] Conte has often been called "the people's lawyer" (l'avvocato del popolo), as he described himself during his first speech as prime minister.[40][41]

  1. ^ Donatella Polito (24 May 2018). "Valentina, chi è l'ex moglie di Giuseppe Conte" [Valentina, who is the former wife of Giuseppe Conte]. Archived from the original on 12 July 2018. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
  2. ^ "Giuseppe Conte, la sua fidanzata? Olivia Paladino: bellissima e biondissima, è la figlia del proprietario dell'Hotel Plaza" [Who is Giuseppe Conte's girlfriend? Olivia Paladino: Beautiful and very blond, she is the daughter of the owner of the Hotel Plaza]. Libero. 25 May 2018. Archived from the original on 1 April 2019. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
  3. ^ "Raggiunto l'accordo per un governo M5S-Lega con Conte premier" [Agreement is reached for an M5S-Lega government with premier Conte] (in Italian). 31 May 2018. Archived from the original on 2 April 2019. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
  4. '^ Governo Conte II, Governo Italiano
  5. ^ Giuseppe Conte è stato infine eletto presidente del Movimento 5 Stelle con un voto online, Il Post
  6. ^ "Novice to lead Italian populist cabinet". BBC News. 23 May 2018. Archived from the original on 1 April 2019. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
  7. ^ "M5S and League agree contract for Italy's 'government of change'". thelocal.it. 17 May 2018. Archived from the original on 5 September 2019. Retrieved 5 September 2019.
  8. ^ "Giuramento governo: alle 16 Conte e i ministri al Quirinale". Il Sole 24 Ore. Archived from the original on 1 April 2019. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
  9. ^ Borrelli, Silvia Sciorilli (9 August 2019). "Matteo Salvini calls confidence vote in Italian PM". Politico Europe. Archived from the original on 16 August 2019. Retrieved 5 September 2019.
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference guardian_resignation was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ "Consultazioni, Mattarella convoca Conte per giovedì mattina: il premier al Colle alle 09:30". Tgcom24. Archived from the original on 28 August 2019. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
  12. ^ Antonucci, Maria Cristina (21 September 2019). "Da sinistra a destra, Conte fa (bene) il presidentissimo. Analisi di Antonucci". Formiche.net. Archived from the original on 28 October 2019. Retrieved 24 October 2019.
  13. ^ "Conte? Campione di trasformismo". Il Tempo (in Italian). Archived from the original on 24 October 2019. Retrieved 24 October 2019.
  14. ^ "'Il premier tecnico di un governo politico'. Cosa dicono i giornali". AGI – Agenzia Giornalistica Italia. 22 May 2018. Archived from the original on 13 September 2018. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
  15. ^ "Conte fa fuori Salvini e Di Maio, e incassa 209 miliardi. Storia di un premier sottovalutato". L'HuffPost (in Italian). 21 July 2020. Archived from the original on 20 September 2020. Retrieved 2 September 2020.
  16. ^ "Aspi, Senato approva mozione di maggioranza su 'nazionalizzazione'". la Repubblica (in Italian). 21 July 2020. Retrieved 2 September 2020.
  17. ^ "Alitalia sarà nazionalizzata". Il Post (in Italian). 19 March 2020. Retrieved 2 September 2020.
  18. ^ "Ex Ilva, firmato l’accordo: lo Stato 'rientra' nell'acciaieria. Ma il piano industriale genera nuovi conflitti e le emissioni non sono calate", Il Fatto Quotidiano
  19. ^ "[Ticker] Italian PM Conte promises tough line on 'illegal immigration'". EUobserver. Retrieved 2 September 2020.
  20. ^ "All of Italy to be placed on coronavirus lockdown". BBC News. 9 March 2020. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  21. ^ "Italy, the first country in Europe to enter lockdown, starts to emerge". The Economist. Retrieved 2 September 2020.
  22. ^ Così le norme contro il virus possono rievocare il «dictator», Avvenire
  23. ^ "Sondaggio Ipsos. Forte aumento fiducia in Governo e Giuseppe Conte". 29 March 2020.
  24. ^ Il paternalismo autoritario ormai domina la politica Archived 18 December 2020 at the Wayback Machine, Huffington Post
  25. ^ Il premier Conte positivo al virus autoritario, Il Riformista
  26. ^ "L'Italia pagherà il conto più salato della crisi post-epidemia". Agi (in Italian). Retrieved 2 September 2020.
  27. ^ "Conte: EU recovery fund gives chance to 'change the face' of Italy". Reuters. 21 July 2020. Retrieved 2 September 2020.
  28. ^ Crisi di governo, Renzi ritira le ministre Bonetti e Bellanova. Conte: “Grave responsabilità di Italia viva, danno al Paese. Mai sottratto al confronto ma terreno era minato”, Il Fatto Quotidiano
  29. ^ Conte si dimette e tenta il ter (senza chiudere la porta a Renzi), Il Sole 24 Ore
  30. ^ Mario Draghi giura al Quirinale con tre minuti di anticipo Archived 19 February 2022 at the Wayback Machine, Huffington Post
  31. ^ Luca Serafini (25 May 2018). "Da Renzi a Conte: ecco chi sono i presidenti del Consiglio non-eletti in parlamento". Archived from the original on 1 April 2019. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
  32. ^ "Da De Mita a Conte, l'incarico torna a sud di Roma dopo trent'anni". Il Sole 24 Ore. Archived from the original on 1 April 2019. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
  33. ^ Ghiglione, Davide (1 March 2021). "Former Italian PM Giuseppe Conte to lead Five Star movement". Financial Times. Retrieved 27 May 2021.
  34. ^ Amante, Angelo (28 February 2021). "Italy's former PM Conte accepts task of trying to revive 5-Star Movement". Reuters. Retrieved 27 May 2021.
  35. ^ Italy's weird technopopulism could be the new normal, Wired
  36. ^ Piccolino, Gianluca; Puleo, Leonardo (6 February 2021). "Mario Draghi in the "Promised land" of populism (and technocracy)". Who Governs Europe. Retrieved 27 May 2021.
  37. ^ "Italia primo governo populista in Europa occidentale". Adnkronos. Archived from the original on 1 April 2019. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
  38. ^ Eric J. Lyman (22 May 2018). "Giuseppe Conte: Italy's next PM to form western Europe's first populist government". USA Today. Archived from the original on 24 July 2019. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
  39. ^ "Opinion – The Populists Take Rome". The New York Times. 24 May 2018. Archived from the original on 1 April 2019. Retrieved 1 April 2019 – via NYTimes.com.
  40. ^ "Conte bis? I 15 mesi a palazzo Chigi dell' "avvocato del popolo" diventato leader politico". Il Sole 24 ORE. 27 August 2019. Archived from the original on 28 August 2019. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  41. ^ "Conte, l'avvocato del popolo strapazza il capitano – Primopiano". ANSA.it. 20 August 2019. Archived from the original on 25 August 2019. Retrieved 28 August 2019.