After Italy’s incumbent Prime Minister Enrico Letta resigned on Friday, 39-year old Matteo Renzi, the mayor of Florence, has been sworn in on Saturday as the new Prime Minister of Italy. He becomes the youngest Prime Minister in modern-day Italy. He has also named his 16 cabinet ministers. Renzi is described as telegenic, a smooth talker and has earned the nickname demolition man or il Rottomatore for his hard and tough brand of politics. He said Tony Blair of Britain is his role model.
First steps
Many expect that with the new leadership, the political stability in the country will be ushered in. He headed straight to Palazzo Chigi, the Prime Minister’s office to hold his first cabinet meeting after he and his cabinet were sworn in. Women ministers compose half of his newly formed cabinet. Even the cabinet members are quite youthful, with 48 years the average age. This is the first time in Italy’s history that this high number of women are in the cabinet. The outline of the policies of the new Prime Minister is expected to be announced on Monday.
Political turmoil in Italy
The former prime minister, Enrico Letta’s term of office did not even last for a year. He only held office starting April 2013, named as head of a coalition after the results of the elections were inconclusive. In recent years Italy’s political scene has been unstable last week, the general frustration due to the slow implementation of reforms forced Letta out of office. Since 2008 when Italy has its last elected leader in Silvio Berlusconi, all of the leaders in Italy were appointed.
Expectations from the young leader
Political uncertainty is back in Italy because of the sudden resignation of PM Letta. Chatham House Research Director of International Economics, Paola Subacchi seems to think that most Italians seem to like the young leader, although he still lacks political experience. They think that his youth and energy will bring changes that the country sorely need.
Ms. Subacchi also acknowledged that there are still reservations about Mr. Renzi’s lack of parliamentary and government experience, as well as the experience in dealing with the European Union in general.
Promises
PM Renzi gave daring promises to provide work to Italy’s youth, which is a big problem in the country. However, youth groups are still unimpressed. They have become immune to the promises of more jobs for the unemployed youth that they have been hearing since 1994, and so far that had remained as a promise. Pundits are saying that Mr. Renzi will be judged on his ability to reinvigorate Italy’s economy and bring down unemployment, which at the moment stands at 13% overall, of which 40% is among Italy’s younger populace.
The new Prime Minister also promised that he would overhaul the education and tax systems, as well as the jobs market in four months, although many say that it is not going to be easy.
Photo credit: Taken by Maryb60 under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
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