国际英语新闻:News Analysis: Italian PM Conte gets started on his second stint as top mediator

ROME, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- Giuseppe Conte, who headed the ill-fated government that collapsed this month after nearly 15 months in power, has been tapped to head the next government as well.

His main task, according to analysts, will be largely the same -- forging compromise between two parties that are not natural allies.

On Thursday, Italian President Sergio Mattarella gave Conte a formal mandate to form a new government based on a coalition that includes the populist Five-Star Movement and the center-left Democratic Party, two parties long at odds with each other.

That is not too different from the uneasy alliance between the Five-Star Movement and the nationalist, anti-migrant League, which based Conte's previous government.

"When he first became prime minister last year, Conte's role immediately became that of a mediator, always looking for compromises between two parties that did not agree on many things," Nicola Pasini, a political science professor at the State University of Milan, told Xinhua.

"He will have the same job with the new coalition between the Five-Star Movement and the Democratic Party," Pasini said.

The new government could have one advantage over the previous one, analysts said. Both the Five-Star Movement and the Democratic Party might be more willing to compromise in order to keep the League and its leader, Matteo Salvini, out of office.

"The Five-Star Movement and the Democratic Party agreed to work together because it is the only way that they can survive," Pasini said.

According to Lorenzo De Sio, head of the Italian Center of Electoral Studies at Rome's LUISS University, while the partners in the new coalition do not see eye to eye on everything they probably have more in common than the Five-Star Movement did with the League.

Furthermore, De Sio said, having the League outside the government will make the government's first big hurdle -- drafting the country's 2020 budget plan -- easier.

"With the League out of the picture it means they can disregard its biggest priority, the flat tax that would have reduced government revenue significantly," Di Sio said in an interview.

"The previous coalition was one that had conflicting priorities: the League wanted to reduce taxes and the Five-Star Movement wanted to increase services, with initiatives like the minimum citizen's income," Di Sio went on. "At least the new government will have similar beliefs in this regard."

Markets did react positively to the news that Mattarella gave Conte a mandate for a government based on an alliance between the Five-Star Movement and the Democratic Party.

The blue-chip index on the Italian Stock Exchange climbed and the yield on Italian government debt sold on secondary markets headed lower, a sign of increased investor confidence.

The next order of business for Conte will be to select a slate of government ministers to present to Mattarella next week. With the president's approval, the new government will be installed and will start work on the 2020 budget.