Sawt Falasteen - Italy's new PM Meloni sets out programme to parliament

The 45-year-old, who was sworn in as Italy's first woman premier on Saturday, is expected to outline her approach to challenges including soaring inflation, an energy crisis and looming risk of recession in the eurozone's third-largest economy.

Meloni will present "a programmatic manifesto", according to government sources, aiming to implement "the commitments undertaken with Italian citizens in the election campaign".

The lower house of parliament and the Senate will then each hold a vote of confidence in Meloni's government, the most right-wing in Rome since World War II.

The votes, likely on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, are largely procedural, as her coalition has a comfortable majority in parliament.

Meloni's post-fascist Brothers of Italy party won a historic 26 percent of the vote in September 25 elections, with a promise to defend Italy's borders, traditional values and national interests abroad.

She has formed a government with Matteo Salvini's far-right, anti-immigration League party and former premier Silvio Berlusconi's right-wing Forza Italia, which won nine and eight percent, respectively.

The prospect of a Eurosceptic, populist government in Italy, a NATO member and a founding nation of the European Union, has sparked concern among Rome's allies.

But despite her party's roots in Italy's neo-fascist movement, Meloni is expected to follow a similar economic policy to outgoing premier Mario Draghi, at least initially.

She named as economy minister Giancarlo Giorgetti, a relatively moderate member of the League who was economic development minister under Draghi.

Roberto Cingolani, who served as energy minister in the last government, will also stay on as an adviser, helping to keep the lights on as Italy tries to wean itself off Russian gas in the wake of the war in Ukraine.

"On economic policies, there is general popular support for what Draghi was doing," Gilles Moec, chief economist at the AXA group, told AFP.

Italy's economy bounced back from a deep recession sparked by coronavirus lockdowns in 2020, but is still struggling with mammoth debt worth 150 percent of gross domestic product.

And the fall-out of the Ukraine war risks causing a fresh contraction next year, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Key to Italy's future growth is almost 200 billion euros in grants and loans from the European Union's post-pandemic recovery fund.

But the money is dependent on Rome implementing major reforms, from criminal justice to public administration, by 2026.

Meloni's coalition said before the election that it wants to review the EU plan but has given no detail.

Analysts say there is little room for manoeuvre, with the funds already being disbursed and Brussels unwilling to re-open negotiations.

L.AbuTayeh--SF-PST