Update: Renzi Is Italy’s New Premier

           As expected, Matteo Renzi was sworn in today as Prime Minister of Italy after re-forming the same grand coalition of the center-left and center-right and the center as the executive lead by the predecessor he ousted through a party conference, Enrico Letta, although with a mostly new cabinet of ministers.

            The new Italian Premier has a full docket, as economical, political and fiscal reforms are urgently needed.  Renzi promises to address one each month.  Italy, the European Monetary Union’s third largest economy, is only beginning to emerge from its deepest post-war recession, has a much-derided parliamentary election law that has been ruled unconstitutional and possesses one of the highest ratios of debt to gross domestic product in the world.  The new center-left prime minister is expected to continue economic reforms that will encourage growth without raising taxes, replace the electoral law with one supported by both his own party and those parties both in government and in opposition on the center-right that can better help a party win and sustain a governing majority, and to reduce spending by streamlining bureaucracy and selling off state assets. 

           Italy’s Parliament is expected to give Renzi its vote of confidence on Monday.  Meanwhile, it started the process of political reform by ratifying the Italian Government’s decree to phase out government subsidies of political parties I had posted about in December of 2013, in my post, Foreign Digest: Ukraine, Poland, Central African Republic, Italy, http://williamcinfici.blogspot.com/2013/12/foreign-digest-ukraine-poland-central.html.  No changes in North Atlantic Treaty Organization member Italy’s foreign policy are expected, meaning it will maintain its close relations with the United States.