Background

Conte was born on 8 August 1964 into a middle class family at Volturara Appula, near Foggia.

Education

Giuseppe Conte was educated at Yale, the Sorbonne and – briefly, for a month – Cambridge University.

Career

In one part of his résumé, Conte says he "perfected and updated his studies" at New York University from 2008 to 2012.

An NYU spokeswoman said in a statement that university records did not indicate Conte was a student or ever had an appointment as a faculty member. The school said that even though Conte had no "official status" at NYU, "he was granted permission to conduct research in the NYU law library between 2008 and 2014, and he invited an NYU law professor to serve on the board of an Italian law journal."

Conte also claimed he taught at the University of Malta in the summer of 1997 for the "international course of study entitled: European Contract and Banking Law." The University of Malta told CNN that it "has no record of Giuseppe Conte ever forming part of the resident academic staff."

"However this does not exclude that he may have been involved in lecturing duties during short courses organized in the summer of 1997 by the now defunct Foundation for International Studies (FIS) which was a separate entity that worked in close collaboration with the University of Malta," a spokesman for the university said. And some academics from the Faculty of Law "seem to remember him being one of the lecturers during this short course," the spokesman added.

Conte also said he conducted scientific research in 2000 at the Sorbonne in Paris.

Conte also said he conducted studies at Yale University and Duquesne University in the US for three months in the fall of 1992 "to further his study of the North American contract law." Yale said it would perform a "thorough check of the records" and would not comment further until the checks were complete.

Duquesne University confirmed Conte was at the university in the early 1990s "as part of an affiliation with the Villa Nazareth program, a cultural institution in Rome founded by Domenico Cardinal Tardini that fostered international student exchanges." The program "enabled students from Rome to attend graduate programs at Duquesne University and undergraduates from Duquesne to attend classes at Villa Nazareth."

Duquesne said Conte "was not enrolled as a student." But he was engaged in legal research and in advancing the work of "our affiliation with Villa Nazareth, working on legal issues related to a charitable trust that funded the program, and helping select the program's participants," the school said.

In early 2018, Conte was selected by Luigi Di Maio, leader of the Five Star Movement (M5S), as the future possible Minister of Public Administration in his cabinet following the 2018 general election. However, the election resulted in a hung parliament, with the M5S that became the party with the largest number of votes and of parliamentary seats while the centre-right coalition, led by Matteo Salvini's League and other right-wing parties, emerged with a plurality of seats in the Chamber of Deputies and in the Senate. The centre-left coalition led by former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi came third.

On 9 May, after weeks of political deadlock and the failure of various attempts of forming cabinets both between M5S–Centre-right and M5S–Democratic Party, Di Maio and Salvini responded to President Sergio Mattarella's ultimatum to appoint a neutral technocratic caretaker government by officially requesting that he allow them 24 more hours to achieve a governing agreement between their two parties. Later that same day in the evening, Silvio Berlusconi publicly announced Forza Italia would not support a M5S–League government on a vote of confidence, but he would still maintain the centre-right alliance nonetheless, thus opening the doors to a possible majority government between the two parties.

On 13 May, M5S and League reached an agreement in principle on a government program, likely clearing the way for the formation of a governing coalition between the two parties, but could not find an agreement regarding the members of a government cabinet, most importantly the Prime Minister. M5S and League leaders met with President Sergio Mattarella on 14 May to guide the formation of a new government. On their meeting with President Mattarella, both parties asked for an additional week of negotiations to agree on a detailed government program and a Prime Minister to lead the joint government. Both M5S and the League announced their intention to ask their respective members to vote on the government agreement by the weekend.

On 21 May, Conte was proposed by Di Maio and Salvini for the role of Prime Minister in the 2018 Italian government, despite reports in the Italian press suggesting that President Mattarella still had significant reservations about the direction of the new government. On 23 May, Conte was invited to the Quirinal Palace to receive the presidential mandate to form a new cabinet. In the traditional statement after the appointment, Conte said that he would be the "defense lawyer of Italian people".

On 27 May, Conte renounced his office due to contrasts between Salvini and President Mattarella. Salvini proposed the university professor Paolo Savona as Minister of Economy and Finances, but Mattarella strongly opposed him, considering Savona too Eurosceptic and anti-German. In his speech after Conte's resignation, Mattarella declared that the two parties wanted to bring Italy out of the Eurozone and as the guarantor of Italian Constitution and country's interest and stability he could not allow this.

On the following day, Mattarella gave Carlo Cottarelli, a former director of the International Monetary Fund, the task of forming a new government. On 28 May, the Democratic Party (PD) announced that it would abstain from voting the confidence to Cottarelli while the M5S and the center-right parties Forza Italia (FI), Brothers of Italy (FdI) and the League announced their vote against.

Cottarelli was expected to submit his list of ministers for approval to President Mattarella on 29 May. On 29 May and 30 May, he held only informal consultations with the President, waiting for the formation of a "political government". Meanwhile, Salvini and Di Maio announced their willingness to restart the negotiations to form a political government and Giorgia Meloni, leader of FdI, gave her support to the initiative. On May 31, M5S and the League declared of having reached an agreement about forming a new government without Paolo Savona as Finance Minister (he would become Minister of European affairs instead) and with Conte at its head.

On 1 June 2018, despite having no political experience, Conte officially succeeded the Democrat Paolo Gentiloni at the head of the Italian government, swearing as new Prime Minister in the afternoon. His cabinet was predominantly composed by members of the M5S and the League, but also by prominent independent technocrats like the Minister of Foreign Affairs Enzo Moavero Milanesi, who previously served as Minister of European Affairs in the government of Mario Monti, the university professor Giovanni Tria as Minister of Economy and Finances and economist Paolo Savona, who served in the cabinet of Carlo Azeglio Ciampi in the 1990s and currently known for his Eurosceptic views, that would become the new Minister of European Affairs.

Both parties' leaders Salvini and Di Maio were appointed Deputy Prime Ministers. While the first became Minister of the Interior, with the main aim of drastically reducing the number of illegal immigrants, the latter served as Minister of Economic Development, Labour and Social Policies to introduce the universal basic income.

The coalition of the two populist parties which Conte led was also known as Government of Change, thanks to a document that summarized the electoral programmes of the two parties, which was called "Contract for the Government of Change".

During his speech before the investiture vote in the Italian Senate on 5 June, Conte announced his willingness to reduce illegal immigration and increase the contrast to human traffickers and smugglers. He also advocated a fight against political corruption, the introduction of a law which regulates the conflict of interests, a new bill which expands the right of self-defense, a taxes reduction and a drastic cut to politics's costs, thanks to the annuities' abolition. Conte also proposed to lift off the international sanctions against Russia.

The Senate approved the confidence vote with 171 votes in favor and 117 against, with 25 abstentions. The cabinet was supported by M5S, Lega, two senators from Associative Movement Italians Abroad (MAIE) and two independents while the Democratic Party (PD), Forza Italia (FI), Free and Equal (LeU) and other small leftist parties voted against it. The far-right Brothers of Italy (FdI) and other ten independent senators abstained. On the following day, he received 350 votes in favor out of 630 in the Chamber of Deputies, 236 votes against and 35 abstained. As in the Senate, PD, FI and LeU voted against the government while FdI abstained. Besides M5S and League, Conte received two votes from independent deputies and one vote from Vittorio Sgarbi, a notable and controversial member of Forza Italia who has always heavily criticised the M5S, but decided to support the cabinet in respect of Salvini and with the hope that a M5S government could lead toward their failure.

Achievements

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  Conte's cabinet is considered by many newspapers such as The New York Times and la Repubblica as the first populist government in Western Europe. Moreover, he was the first person to assume the premiership without prior government or administrative service since Silvio Berlusconi in 1994 and the first Prime Minister from Southern Italy since the Christian Democrat Ciriaco De Mita in 1989.

Religion

Conte is an observant Roman Catholic and a votary to Padre Pio of Pietrelcina.

Politics

During an interview in 2018, Conte said he used to vote for the left before approaching the M5S during the early 2010s. He also added that today "the ideological schemes of the 20th century are no longer adequate to represent the current political system" and it should be "more important and correct to evaluate the work of a political force on how it is positioned on the respect of fundamental rights and freedoms".

In his inaugural speech at the Senate on 5 June 2018, in response to attacks on government political forces accused of being populist and anti-establishment, Conte replied that "if populism is the attitude of the ruling class to listen to the people's needs [...] and if anti-establishment means aiming at introducing a new system able to remove old privileges and encrusted power, well these political forces deserve both these epithets".

He also opposed the "hypertrophy of Italian laws", advocating the repeal of useless laws and supported a simplification of bureaucracy. Conte strongly opposed the school reform legislation promoted by Matteo Renzi's government in 2015, known as "The Good School", which he said must be completely revised.

During his premiership, Conte and his Interior Minister Matteo Salvini promoted stricter policies regarding immigration and public security.

Views

Conte is very strong on immigration. After Conte's approval on 10 June 2018, Salvini announced the closure of Italian ports, stating: "Everyone in Europe is doing their own business, now Italy is also raising its head. Let's stop the business of illegal immigration". The vessel Aquarius, which is operated jointly by Médecins Sans Frontières and SOS Méditerranée and carried more than 600 migrants, was refused a port of disembarkation by the Italian authorities despite having been told to rescue the migrants by the same co-ordination centre. The Italian authority told the vessel to ask Malta to provide a disembarkation port, but Malta has also refused. On the following day, the new Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez accepted the disputed migrant ship. Conte accused French President Emmanuel Macron of hypocrisy after Macron said Italy was acting "irresponsibly" by refusing entry to migrants and suggested it had violated international maritime law.

Quotations: "Italy cannot accept hypocritical lessons from countries that have always preferred to turn their backs when it comes to immigration."

"The political forces that make up this government have been accused of being populist and anti-system..., if populism means the ruling class listens to the needs of the people ... (and) if anti-system means to aim to introduce a new system, which removes old privileges and encrusted power, well these political forces deserve both these epithets."

"Italian public debt is fully sustainable today, however, its reduction must be pursued, but with a view to economic growth."

"The truth is that we have created a radical change and we're proud of it."

"Outside here there is a country that needs answers, i will be the defense lawyer of the Italian people."

Personality

He is renowned as a sharp dresser with a penchant for waistcoats, cufflinks and pocket handkerchiefs.

Connections

The 54-year-old is separated from his wife, with whom he has a 10-year-old son.

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