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First Conte government

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First Conte government

The first Conte government was the 65th government of the Italian Republic. It was led by Giuseppe Conte, an independent, and it was in office from 1 June 2018 to 5 September 2019.

The cabinet was formed by a coalition between the Five Star Movement and the League, but it also contained some independents proposed by each party (including the Prime Minister). It was referred to as the "government of change" (Italian: governo del cambiamento) after the title of the political agreement signed by the two parties, or the "yellow-green government" (governo gialloverde), based on their customary colours, even if the League originally preferred "yellow-blue government" (governo gialloblu), due to its new campaign colour under Salvini's leadership.

The government has often been described as "populist" (the first of that kind in Europe according to several sources) and its policies (and more specifically those of the League) have been described by Italian newspapers as "souverainist".

The government is supported and most of its members are provided by the two following parties.

At its birth, the government was also supported by the Associative Movement Italians Abroad (MAIE), five deputies and two senators previously expelled from the M5S, one dissident senator from the South American Union Italian Emigrants (USEI) who later joined the MAIE and one deputy of Forza Italia (FI) who sarcastically voted in favour of it. Ricardo Merlo, the leader of MAIE, was also named Undersecretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 12 June 2018. The government is also supported by the National Movement for Sovereignty, the Sardinian Action Party and the Italian Liberal Party (whose senators sit in the League group).

Brothers of Italy (FdI), the parties representing linguistic minorities (Valdostan Union, South Tyrolean People's Party and Trentino Tyrolean Autonomist Party) and one deputy from USEI do not support the government, but affirmed their willingness to vote for measures that reflect their respective ideologies.

The March 2018 general election resulted in a hung parliament. The Five Star Movement (M5S) led by Luigi Di Maio resulted as the party with the largest number of votes and parliamentary seats, whereas the centre-right coalition in which Matteo Salvini's League emerged as the main political force won a plurality of seats both in the Chamber of Deputies and in the Senate. The centre-left coalition, built around the Democratic Party (PD) led by former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, came third.

On 9 May, after weeks of political deadlock and failing attempts to form a cabinet, including possible M5S–Centre-right and M5S–PD coalitions, Di Maio and Salvini officially requested President Sergio Mattarella to concede them 24 hours more to strike a government agreement between their two parties. In the evening, Silvio Berlusconi publicly announced that Forza Italia (FI) would not support a M5S–League government on a vote of confidence, but it would still maintain the centre-right alliance nonetheless, thus opening the door to a possible majority government between the two parties.

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