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Amato's new, rehashed center-left government is sworn in |
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April 27, 2000 ROME, APR 26 (AP) - Premier Giuliano Amato was sworn into office Wednesday along with a rehashed center-left coalition already looking frayed after one of his choices refused to take up his ministry post. Amato, a respected treasury minister in the 18-month-long government of Massimo D'Alema which collapsed last week, is expected to put his government, formed Tuesday evening, to the required confidence votes in both chambers of Parliament in the next couple of days. Almost immediately after being named by Amato on Tuesday night, Edo Ronchi, from the Greens, refused to serve as minister for European Union relations after he - and his party - didn't get to keep the environment ministry. Amato will temporarily take on the EU relations post until a new minister is named. Italian news reports gave varying estimates of how many deputies Amato should be able to count on in a confidence vote in the Chamber of Deputies, venturing that the new premier should be able to command from about 318 to 320 votes in the 630-seat lower house. Winning a confidence vote takes 50 percent plus one. He should have a wider edge in the Senate. Chamber whips were scheduled to meet in the early evening to work out a timetable for the vote. The center-left, squabbling since it came to power in 1996 under Romano Prodi, set aside disputes in a bid to stay in power until parliamentary elections scheduled for spring 2001. After the center-left was trounced in April 16 regional elections by forces backed by media mogul and conservative opposition leader Silvio Berlusconi, the coalition told D'Alema he had to go. The partners lined up behind Amato, who as Socialist premier in the early 1990s won a reputation for courageously slashing away at Italy's huge budget deficit. Berlusconi lashed out at the new government. "It's a formation that speaks for itself, put in place with the sole purpose of keeping the left in power," said Berlusconi, who had unsuccessfully lobbied President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi to call elections a year ahead of schedule. Berlusconi was premier in 1994. As
Ronchi's refusal made clear, despite the center-left's eagerness
to stay in power, it was tough going coming up with a Cabinet. "All
told, it wasn't easy," Amato said, referring to his efforts
since Italy's president asked him on Friday to come up with a new government. Among the same faces are Lamberto Dini, a moderate who remains foreign minister, and Vincenzo Visco, a member of the Democrat Left, a former Communist party, who switches from finance minister to treasury and budget minister. Many
others kept their posts or switched Cabinet departments. "It's
a photocopy of the D'Alema government," said Berlusconi ally Roberto Maroni of the autonomy-seeking Northern League. Amato's coalition ranges from former Communists to Communist hard-liners to liberal former Christian Democrats. His
government in the early 1990s included several men who were later
discredited by the Clean Hands kickback scandals, but Amato's integrity was
never questioned. |