Italy's Berlusconi embarks on third stint as PM

By Francoise Michel AFP - Thursday, May 8 06:40 pm

ROME (AFP) - Italian conservative leader Silvio Berlusconi embarked Thursday on his third stint as prime minister as he and his slimmed-down, right-wing cabinet took the oath of office.

"I swear to be faithful to the republic, to respect the constitution and to exercise my duties in the sole interest of the nation," said Berlusconi, as he and his 21-member government were sworn in before President Giorgio Napolitano.

The media tycoon turned politician will present his programme to parliament on Tuesday and ask for votes of confidence on the next two days in the lower and upper houses of parliament.

Berlusconi had announced his new cabinet in record time, just three weeks after scoring a strong election victory, in what commentators said was a signal that he was in a rush to get to work for an impatient electorate.

"Berlusconi's Lightning Government," headlined the daily La Stampa after the media tycoon broke with protocol by making the announcement immediately after a meeting with President Giorgio Napolitano.

"It's a sign, only a sign, but it's what public opinion has been waiting for" since the April 13-14 elections, Stefano Folli wrote in an editorial in economic daily Il Sole-24 Ore. "Now the hard part begins."

Italy faces staggering problems, including the plight of its national flag-carrier airline Alitalia, a moribund economy and the longstanding wealth gap between north and south.

The new team has shrunk to 21 ministers, compared with 26 under the previous centre-left leader Romano Prodi, and includes several familiar faces while shifting considerably to the right.

The new government will include Franco Frattini, who is leaving his post as European Union justice commissioner to become foreign minister, and Berlusconi's old ally Giulio Tremonti will return to the economics ministry.

Umberto Bossi, head of the Eurosceptic, anti-immigration, Northern League party, will be a minister without portfolio charged with reforms, a post he too has held before under "Il Cavaliere" (The Knight).

Bossi's party, running in coalition with Berlusconi's People of Freedoms, doubled its strength in parliament to eight percent in last month's elections.

Three other Northern League figures were named: Roberto Maroni as Interior Minister, Luca Zaia in agriculture and Roberto Calderoli to the ministry dealing with simplifying the legislative process.

High on the agenda of the incoming government will be the rubbish crisis in the southern Naples region, which took on new urgency on Tuesday when the European Commission sued Italy before an EU court for dragging its feet on the problem.

Berlusconi has said the issue is his top priority, and he will even hold his first cabinet meeting in Naples.

On the economic front, Italy faces a sharp slowdown to just 0.6 percent growth this year after a rise of 1.5 percent in 2007.

The thorniest issue is the fate of Alitalia, which is haemorrhaging funds and for which Berlusconi has promised an Italian rescue package after European giant Air France-KLM backed out of a takeover bid last month.

The new premier will have to convince Brussels that an emergency 300-million-euro (450-million-dollar) loan made by the outgoing Prodi government to Alitalia at his behest does not amount to illegal state aid.

Under a law passed late last year, the size of the cabinet shrank considerably.

Prodi's government, which lasted two years until it collapsed in January, beat all records with 103 members, including 26 ministers. Berlusconi's 2001-06 team numbered 99.

"Now we can get back to work after two years of interruption" by the intervening Prodi government, Berlusconi quipped late Wednesday.

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