Rome (AFP)

Giuseppe Conte - an unknown lawyer thrown last year at the head of an Italian populist government by his two strongmen - announced Tuesday his resignation strongly while attacking the head of the League Matteo Salvini.

In a key Senate speech resembling a "settlement of accounts", the very discreet university professor described his Interior Minister and Deputy Prime Minister as "irresponsible" who shattered the ruling coalition. August 8th.

He pursued "his own interests and those of his party", made "run serious risks to our country", attacked Giuseppe Conte. "Voting citizens is the essence of democracy but asking them to vote every year is irresponsible," he said.

Just before this speech, Luigi Di Maio, his other deputy prime minister and leader of the five-star movement (anti-system), had sent him a tribute marked in an open letter: "you are a rare pearl, a servant of the Nation that Italy can not lose. "

The 55-year-old leader had used the Italians to a dull and bombastic language, but he has been more incisive since the beginning of the crisis. He surprised by attacking Salvini last week in an open letter about his "obsessive focus" on the topic of immigration.

Before the theatrical event in the Senate, protesters unfurled a banner "Tale, Italy loves you" in tribute to a 12-day Prime Minister of the status of "Mr. Nobody to Mister Conte", according to the formula former political journalist Aldo Garzia.

Close to the 5-star movement (M5S, antisystem), after having voted all his life on the left, he had been presented before the parliamentary elections as their possible minister of the civil service.

It was finally at the head of the government that he was propelled, almost overnight.

Having left one morning to teach at the University of Florence, he was sworn in the following day and represented Italy at the G7 table in Canada a week later.

A brand new universe for this man born in 1964 in Volturara Appula, a village of 500 inhabitants in Puglia (southern Italy), who grew up with a father communal secretary and a mother school teacher in San Giovanni Rotondo, the city of Padre Pio, the most revered saint of Italy.

At his appointment, he introduced himself as "the advocate of the people", but he rarely had the opportunity to plead.

- Confidences to Angela -

In February, an indiscreet camera had surprised a private conversation on the sidelines of the Davos talks in which he explained to German Chancellor Angela Merkel her dismay at the lack of space that Matteo Salvini, Deputy Prime Minister, left to his allies, whose the other vice-minister, Luigi Di Maïo, the leader of the 5 Stars Movement.

"My strength is that when I say + now we stop +, they do not fight," he assured Angela Merkel.

With the campaign for the European May, and the reversal of the balance of power that ensued between the League and the M5S, the gap widened between the two allies.

Giuseppe Conte has sometimes tried to impose himself, taking on board the discussions with Brussels, demanding the resignation of an under-secretary of state of the League suspected of corruption, or recently ending the controversy over the project Lyon-Turin railway line that the M5S refuse.

The always-flawless man has always claimed that this post would be his only foray into politics and that he would resume his professional life.

Still, his name is whispering for the post of European Commissioner Italian, which would be a prestigious exit for this lawyer.

He made brilliant law studies at Villa Nazareth, a Catholic university for underprivileged students in Rome, and taught private law in Sardinia, Rome, Florence and Malta.

He has also been a member of the Board of Directors of the Italian Space Agency, a legal consultant to the Rome Chamber of Commerce and a member of the supervisory board of several insurance companies in bankruptcy.

Separated from his wife, he has an 11 year old son with whom he shares a passion for football.

© 2019 AFP