The choice of Carlo Cottarelli as Italy’s caretaker prime minister is a massive political gamble
Carlo Cottarelli will not be Italy’s first caretaker leader. Nor will he be the first technocrat to take over the reins of power in Rome. But he is the first to be handed the job by a supposedly apolitical president in defiance of the democratic will of the people as manifested in the support they gave for two populist parties in the recent March election.
Hence the turmoil in the financial markets that greeted the controversial decision by Italy’s president – Sergio Mattarella – to invite Cottarelli to form a government. If the idea of appointing a safe pair of hands to be prime minister was to reassure jittery investors, the plan was not immediately successful. Italian bond yields – the interest rate paid on government borrowing – saw their biggest one-day jump since 1992.
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