Italy elects parliament speakers, kicks off govt transition
ROME — Italian Premier Paolo Gentiloni formally resigned Saturday following the election of new parliament speakers, but was immediately asked by the president to stay on while the country’s political factions jostle to try to form a new government.
Italy’s inconclusive March 4 election saw a surge in populist and right-wing sentiment but produced no majority in parliament.
The transition of power got underway in earnest Saturday after lawmakers voted to give the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement the leadership of one chamber of parliament and Silvio Berlusconi’s right-wing Forza Italia leadership of the other.
Forza Italia Sen. Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati, a longtime Berlusconi ally, became the first woman to be elected Senate president. In an emotional acceptance speech, she said she wanted to share the victory with “all the women whose histories, actions, examples, commitment and courage have built Italy today.”
The 5-Stars’ Roberto Fico was elected president of the lower Chamber of Deputies.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/italy-elects-parliament-speakers-but-still-no-government/2018/03/24/709b0c0c-2f63-11e8-8dc9-3b51e028b845_story.html
A coalition between populist left 5-Star and the center right?
