Italy Appoints a Prime Minister
Published at
Giorgio Cosulich/Getty Images(ROME) — It took two months, but Italy has a new prime minister — at least for now. Enrico Letta, deputy leader of the centre-left Democratic party, was named the interim prime minister.
Italy’s President Giorgio Napolitano appointed Letta after an inconclusive election in February left Italy’s government without a leader for two months.
Letta, 46, is the nephew of the adviser to former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, and has a reputation for being a moderate on political issues. He now faces the daunting task of getting a bitterly divided parliament to work in unison.
According to the UK’s The Guardian, Letta said he would try to shift away from the EU-led focus on austerity measures that were “no longer sufficient.”
Italy’s is the eurozone’s third-largest economy, The Guardian reports.
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio