Italy’s President Sergio Mattarella approved the country’s far-right and anti-establishment parties’ nominee for prime minister on Wednesday, putting the nation on track to have one of the most populist and radical administrations in all of Europe. The far-right Lega and anti-establishment Five Star parties chose law professor Giuseppe Conte as their consensus pick for Italy’s next prime minister, despite his lack of governing experience. Mattarella giving Conte a mandate to form Italy’s next government clears one of the final hurdles for the two parties before they can begin to run the country. The two non-traditional parties decided to band together after Italy’s election in March left no outright winner and resulted in months of negotiations to form a governing coalition. Italians rejected the country’s once-powerful establishment parties in the vote, leaving Lega and Five Star to fill the void.

Source: Huffington Post May 23, 2018 19:30 UTC