Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte's new left-leaning coalition government has been formed and will be sworn in on Thursday, bringing to an end a month-long crisis, a spokesman for President Sergio Mattarella said Wednesday.
Cabinet members will take the oath early on Thursday after the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) and centre-left Democratic Party (PD) hammered out a deal to prevent the eurozone's third largest economy heading to the polls.
Roberto Gualtieri, an influential member of the European Parliament from the PD, will be economy minister in the new government, Conte said.
Luigi Di Maio, leader of the Five-Star Movement, will be foreign minister, while the interior ministry will go to Luciana Lamorgese, a career civil servant with no political affiliation.
Lamorgese takes over from Matteo Salvini, the hard-right leader who brought down the previous government last month by pulling his League party out of the ruling coalition in a vain attempt to force early elections.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, REUTERS)
