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The government of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte obtained the confidence of the Chamber of Deputies with 343 votes in favor and 263 against. On Tuesday, the new coalition formed by the Five Star Movement and the Democratic Party (PD) will be put to the vote in the Senate, where it has a less baggy majority.

Social rights, defense of the environment, structural reforms and a new electoral law are the central axes of the program that will be implemented by the new Italian Government and that Giuseppe Conte defended before the lower house, signaling the beginning of " a new reform stage ". In a Copernican turn regarding his intervention during the investiture debate that first made him chief executive 15 months ago, Conte claimed Italy's membership of the EU and NATO and announced a more moderate and humane policy.

"Defending the national interest does not mean abandoning yourself to sterile isolationist retreats," the premier launched from the rostrum. "It is within the perimeter of the EU and it is not that we must work for the welfare of the Italians," he said, opening a new phase of relations between Rome and Brussels and ending the battle waged by the previous government coalition, in permanent war with Europe.

Migration Policy Review

A change of route that was marked with the announcement of two key measures for the coming months: a budget law in line with European regulations and a revision of the immigration policy promoted by Matteo Salvini as Minister of the Interior. In this regard, Conte aimed to "recover in substance" the first security decree approved by the previous coalition before it was updated with new amendments, which were questioned by the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella. Specifically, after the approval of the so-called 'security decree bis' last August, the head of state warned that the obligation to save lives at sea is above any other law and showed his perplexity by the disproportion of the fines to NGOs.

With regard to immigration, the prime minister defended the need to establish a common policy that makes "solidarity between EU member states effective" and proposed the introduction of European humanitarian corridors. In a clear sign of discontinuity with respect to the previous government, Conte announced a new immigration policy managed in a "structural" way and not as an "emergency" , while from the opposition benches the League deputies protested shouting for new elections.

On the economic level, Conte stressed the need to "improve the stability pact" of the EU, since the too rigid budgetary rules "run the risk of making invisible" the efforts that have been made to favor the country's growth. And he acknowledged that the first challenge his government faces is the approval of a budget law for next year that avoids an automatic VAT increase.

Initiatives of a social nature

Among the priorities of the new cabinet, social initiatives predominate - improvement of public education, introduction of the minimum wage or aid to families with children - and constitutional reforms to accelerate the autonomy of several rich regions of the north of the country and reduce the number of parliamentarians, a historic Five Star proposal that will be a litmus test for the new coalition.

Another key point in the balance of the alliance between PD and M5E will be the management of the structures, such as the construction of the high-speed train between Turin and Lyon that the 'grillinos' oppose, and which served as an excuse for Matteo Salvini to break the coalition in August, or the withdrawal of the concession to Autostrade, a company owned by the Benetton family, responsible for the maintenance of the Morandi Bridge in Genoa that sank last year causing 43 fatalities.

Finally, Conte demanded "more sobriety especially in social networks" to prevent them from becoming the scene of "a spectacle of verbal aggressions" , and promised that his Government will use "a more respectful vocabulary" because "actions are not measured for the arrogance of words. " A statement of intent that was interpreted as an indirect message to his former deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, and to continuing tensions during the previous government experience. A new language for a new government.

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