ROME, 24 May (BelTA - Xinhua) - Italian President Sergio Mattarella on Wednesday named law professor Giuseppe Conte as Italy's new prime minister, tasking him with a mandate to form a new government.
Conte was put forward by the rightwing League and the populist Five Star Movement, the two top vote-getters in Italy's March 4 election, as their choice for prime minister earlier this week.
"The president of the Republic has conferred a mandate to form a government on Professor Giuseppe Conte," presidential secretary Ugo Zampetti said after the president and the professor met for almost two hours. "Professor Conte has accepted."
After Conte and Mattarella discuss the cabinet line-up, the next step is for the new government to win a confidence vote in each house of parliament -- the 315-member Senate and the 630-member Chamber of Deputies.
"Traditionally, my heart has always beaten to the left," Conte said on a recent talk show, meaning that he has leftist political sympathies.
