Giuseppe Conte

During Conte's governments, more severe punishments for tax dodgers, which are a major problem in Italy, had been approved. With the 2020 financial bill, the government introduced a bill which provided prison for "great tax dodgers".

In January 2020, the cabinet increased to €100 per month the so-called "Renzi bonus", a monthly allowance introduced by Matteo Renzi's government in 2014, recognized to holders of a total annual income not exceeding €24,600. A total of 11.7 million people benefited of the bonus in 2020.

In February 2020, Conte appointed Mariana Mazzucato as his economic counselor. Mazzucato, a professor at the University College London, is considered one of the most prominent supporter of state intervensionism.

In April 2020, amid the coronavirus pandemic which severely affected Europe, Conte became the most vocal supporter of the eurobonds' issuance to face the crisis, describing the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) as "completely inadequate". Conte found key allies in France, Spain, Belgium, Ireland, Portugal, Greece, Slovenia and Luxembourg, which demanded more to be done in relation to coronavirus pandemic; while Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Finland and Estonia strongly opposed the eurobonds. Conte, during an interview to German weekly Die Zeit, questioned: "What do we want to do in Europe? Does each member state want to go its own way?", he also added: "If we are a union, now is the time to prove it." On 8 April, he stated "we should loosened European fiscal rules, otherwise we would have to cancel Europe and everyone will do on their own." On 23 April, the European Council agreed on a ESM without conditionality to sustain direct and indirect healthcare costs and the implementation of the so-called recovery fund to help the reconstruction.

On 8 April 2020, amid the coronavirus pandemic, the government closed all Italian ports until 31 July, stating that they do not ensure the necessary requirements for the classification and definition of "safe place", established by the Hamburg Rules on maritime search and rescue."

In February 2020, Italy became one of the world's main centres for confirmed cases of COVID-19, a respiratory disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus that originated in China. As of May 2020, more than 220,000 coronavirus cases were confirmed, affecting mainly Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, Veneto and Piedmont.

On 8 March 2020, Prime Minister Conte extended the quarantine to all of Lombardy and 14 other northern provinces, putting more than a quarter of the national population under lockdown. On the following day, he announced in a press conference that all measures previously applied only in the so-called "red zones" had been extended to the whole country, putting de facto 60 million people in lockdown. He later proceeded to officially sign the executive decree. This measure was described as the largest lockdown in human history.

Since the beginning of his term as prime minister, Conte's foreign policy has been characterized by a lenient approach to Russia. For example, he advocated the repeal of international sanctions against Russia, which according to him damage the Italian economy. He also considered Russia a strategic partner in the fight against Islamic terrorism. However, Conte stressed that under his leadership Italy will remain an active member of NATO and a close ally of the United States. The good relations between the two administration became evident in March 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic. After a phone call with Conte, Russian president Vladimir Putin arranged the Russian army to send military medics, special disinfection vehicles and other medical equipment to Italy, which was the European country hardest hit by coronavirus.

In June 2018, Trump praised Conte, describing him as a "really great leader" and "very strong on immigration". Trump also endorsed Conte during the 2019 Italian political crisis, hoping that he could remain Prime Minister. On 31 March 2020, President Trump announced that the United States would send 100 million dollars of medical aids to Italy. After few days, during an interview at the NBC, Conte described Trump as "Italy's most true and loyal friend". On 11 Apri, Trump issued an executive order in which he allowed U.S. militaries deployed in Italy to assist Italian law enforcement in facing the crisis.

At the beginning of his political career, Conte was described as a populist and Eurosceptic politician, openly critic towards the EU, whose economic and financial rules were described as "old and outdated". However, he later toned down his Eurosceptic rhetoric, thus still remaining a vocal anti-austerity leader, as it became evidence during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, which severely affected Europe.

In January 2020, the situation of the Libyan Civil War became increasingly worrying, with the troops of field marshal Khalifa Haftar approaching Tripoli. During the crisis, Prime Minister Conte had a series of bilateral meetings in Rome both with Haftar and Fayez al-Sarraj, the Chairman of the Presidential Council of Libya, who are considered two of the main contenders in the civil war. After pressures from the international community, on 12 January Haftar announced a ceasefire.

In November 2018, Silvia Romano, a 23-year-old Italian aid worker, was kidnapped in Kenya by a group of Islamic terrorists linked to Al-Shabaab. On 9 May 2020, Conte announced her liberation in a tweet. Immediately after the announcement, speculations rose about the ransom paid to the kidnappers, which according to some sources stood at around €4 million. Moreover, Romano became the target of a hate campaign by the right-wing opposition due to her conversion to Islam, occurred during the captivity. During a discussion in the Chamber of Deputies, Alessandro Pagano, a member of the League, labeled her as a "neo-terrorist".

According to public opinion surveys, Conte's approval rating was always above 50% during all his first cabinet, then it dropped to 40% in the early months of his second government. However, in March 2020, amid the coronavirus crisis, his approval rating rose above 70%, one of the highest ever ratings for an Italian Prime Minister. Moreover, with more than 3 million followers, Conte is one of the most followed European leaders on Facebook.

On 20 August 2019, Conte offered to resign as Prime Minister when the League filed a motion of no confidence in the coalition government. Subsequently, the M5S and the centre-left Democratic Party agreed to form a new government, with Conte remaining as Prime Minister. In the process, Conte became the first Italian Prime Minister to lead separate governments with both right-wing and left-wing coalition partners.

On 5 February 2019, Conte became acting Minister of European Affairs after the resignation of Paolo Savona, who was elected President of the Companies and Exchange Commission (CONSOB). He held the ad interim office until 10 July 2019, when he appointed Lorenzo Fontana as new minister.

In August 2019, Deputy Prime Minister Salvini announced a motion of no confidence against Conte, after growing tensions within the majority. Many political analysts believe the no confidence motion was an attempt to force early elections to improve Lega's standing in Parliament, ensuring Salvini could become the next Prime Minister. On 20 August, following the parliamentary debate at the Senate, in which Conte accused Salvini of being a political opportunist who "had triggered the political crisis only to serve his personal interest" and stated "this government ends here", the Prime Minister resigned his post to President Mattarella.

However, during the round of the so-called consultations between Mattarella and the parliamentary groups, a possible new majority emerged, between the Five Star Movement and the Democratic Party. On 28 August, PD's leader Nicola Zingaretti announced at the Quirinal Palace his favorable position on keeping Giuseppe Conte at the head of the new government, and on same day, Mattarella summoned Conte to the Quirinal Palace for 29 August to give him the task of forming a new cabinet. On 4 September, Conte announced the ministers of his new cabinet, which was sworn in at the Quirinal Palace on the following day. On 9 September 2019 the Chamber of Deputies granted the confidence to the government with 343 votes in favour, 263 against and 3 abstentions. On 10 September 2019, in the second vote of confidence in the Senate, 169 lawmakers voted in favour of his government and 133 against.

In December 2019 the Minister of Education, University and Research Lorenzo Fioramonti resigned after disagreements with the rest of the cabinet regarding the recently approved 2020 budget bill. Fioramonti considered the share of funds dedicated to education and research to be insufficient. Conte took the ministerial role ad interim, and announced his decision to split the Ministry of Education, University and Research into two: a Ministry of Public Education led by former undersecretary Lucia Azzolina (M5S), and a Ministry of University and Research led by the dean of the University of Naples Federico II Gaetano Manfredi (Independent), who were sworn in on 10 January.

In September 2019, at the head of his second government, Conte launched the so-called "Green New Deal", named after the analogous US proposed legislation that aimed to address climate change and economic inequality. In the same period, he praised students who protested against climate change, stating: "The images of the squares of the Fridays for Future are extraordinary, with so many young people participating with such passion. From the government there is the utmost commitment to translate this request for change into concrete solutions. We all have a great responsibility."

On 23 September 2019, Italy and other four European countries, Germany, France, Malta and Finland, agreed on a draft deal to present to other EU countries on how to manage the migrant crisis and distribute those saved from the Mediterranean. This agreement was considered a win for Conte and his new interior minister, Luciana Lamorgese.

The day after the collapse, Conte declared a state of emergency for the Liguria region, which would last for a year. After few days, Conte appointed Marco Bucci, mayor of Genoa, as extraordinary commissioner for the reconstruction. Moreover, the government put pressure on the managers of the Italian highway company, Autostrade per l’Italia, which is part of the Benetton family's owned Atlantia. The M5S asked the revocation of license to Benetton family and the nationalization of Autostrade per l'Italia. However, despite bitter controversies, the revocation has not yet been implemented.

The last two cable-stayed pillars of the bridge were demolished using a tonne of explosives on 28 June 2019. The complete bridge was planned to be removed, along with multiple damaged houses in the surrounding area. The reconstruction of a replacement bridge, designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano, started on 25 June 2019 and was completed on 28 April 2020. The bridge is set to be opened to motor vehicles during 2020.

In March 2019, Conte and the Chinese President Xi Jinping signed in Rome 29 economic and institutional agreements amounting to 2.5 billion euros, including a memorandum of understanding on the Belt and Road Initiative investments program. In August 2019, he took part, as caretaker Prime Minister, in the 45th G7 summit in Biarritz. The main topics of the summit included global trade, climate change, taxing technology companies, but also Iran nuclear deal, and 2019 Amazon wildfires.

Conte criticized the 2019 Turkish offensive into north-eastern Syria. He stated that the offensive puts the region's civilians and stability in jeopardy.

During his first cabinet, Conte has often been considered a neo-nationalist politician, however, since September 2019, when he became the head of a centre-left coalition government, he toned down his nationalist rhetoric. Despite being labeled as a post-ideological leader, Conte described his political ideal as "new humanism".

Conte spent the majority of his career as a law professor and was also a member of the Italian Bureau of Administrative Justice. Following the 2018 general election, he was proposed as the independent leader of a coalition government between the Five Star Movement (M5S) and the League, despite his very low popularity. After both parties agreed on a government program, he was sworn in as Prime Minister on 1 June by President Sergio Mattarella, appointing the M5S and League leaders as his deputies.

In February 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 in third.

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 1 June 2018, Conte officially succeeded the Democrat Paolo Gentiloni at the head of the Italian government and was sworn in as the new prime minister in the afternoon. His cabinet was predominantly composed of members of the M5S and the League but also of prominent independent technocrats like the Minister of Foreign Affairs Enzo Moavero Milanesi, who previously served as the minister of European affairs in the government of Mario Monti, the university professor Giovanni Tria as the minister of economy and finances and economist Paolo Savona, who served in the cabinet of Carlo Azeglio Ciampi in the 1990s and is currently known for his Eurosceptic views, who became the new minister of European affairs.

In 2018, Conte's first government, introduced a flat tax with a 15% rate, applied to small entrepreneurs and self-employed with an amount of annual revenues inferior to €65,000. Despite the so-called "flat regime" was a proposal of the right-wing League, it was confirmed also by Conte's second government, with the centre-left.

When Conte became Prime Minister in 2018, he acted quickly to deliver on promises to the government's anti-immigration base through strict controls on immigration to Italy. Since 2013, Italy had absorbed over 700,000 African migrants arriving by boat from Libya. During his premiership, Conte and his Interior Minister Matteo Salvini promoted stricter policies regarding immigration and public security.

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 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.

On 24 September 2018, the Council of Ministers approved the so-called "Salvini decree", which contained a series of hardline measures that will see the Italian government abolish key forms of protection for migrants and make it easier for them to be deported. The decree will also suspend the refugee application process of those who are considered "socially dangerous" or who have been convicted of a crime.

On 14 August 2018, during a torrential rainstorm over the city of Genoa, a 210-metre (690 ft) section of Ponte Morandi collapsed. Between 30 and 35 cars and three trucks were reported to have fallen from the bridge, killing 43 people.

During an interview in 2018, Conte said he used to vote for the Democratic Party before approaching the M5S during the late 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".

On 21 May 2018, when Conte was proposed to President Mattarella as candidate for prime minister, The New York Times questioned his summer stays at New York University (NYU) listed in his official curriculum vitae in an article asserting that a NYU spokeswoman could not find Conte in university "records as either a student or faculty member". Similar doubts arose concerning his study period in France at the Sorbonne University.

He also opposed the "hypertrophy of Italian laws", advocating the repeal of useless laws and supported a simplification of bureaucracy. As a professor, Conte strongly opposed the school reform legislation promoted by Matteo Renzi's government in 2015, known as "The Good School", which, according to him, must be completely revised. Contrasts with Matteo Renzi became evident during Conte's second government. Despite the cabinet is supported, among others, by Renzi's Italia Viva, the former Prime Minister has often accused Conte of being a populist politician, threatening to withdrew his party's support.

On 18 September 2013, he was elected by the Chamber of Deputies as a member of the Bureau of Administrative Justice, the self-governing body of administrative magistrates, of which he served also as vice president.

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.

Schools were closed in 10 municipalities in Lombardy, one in Veneto and in Emilia-Romagna. In some areas, all public events were cancelled and commercial activities were halted. Regional train services suspended the stops in the most affected areas – with trains not stopping at Codogno, Maleo and Casalpusterlengo stations. Universities in Lombardy suspended all activities from 23 February. After few days, schools and universities closed in the whole country.

In 2010 and 2011, Conte served on the board of directors of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and in 2012 he was appointed by the Bank of Italy as a member of the "Banking and Financial Arbitrage" commission. He served also in scientific committee of the Italian Foundation of Notaries.

On 10 April, Conte made further announcements extending the lockdown until the 3rd of May, allowing some specific businesses, like bookstores and silviculture activities, to reopen under specific safe measures. On the same day, he appointed a task force to relaunch Italy after the crisis; the team was led by Vittorio Colao and composed by a total of nineteen members, chosen among university professors, managers and public administration officers, which notably included Mariana Mazzucato and Enrico Giovannini.

Giuseppe Conte married Valentina Fico, a lawyer from Rome and daughter of a former director of the Santa Cecilia conservatory. They have a child, Niccolò, born in 2007. However, they divorced after a few years. Conte is currently engaged with Olivia Paladino (born 1979), daughter of the Roman entrepreneur Cesare Paladino and the Swedish actress Ewa Aulin.

He became the first Italian Prime Minister without prior political office since Silvio Berlusconi in 1994, as well as the first from Southern Italy since Ciriaco De Mita in 1989. Conte also became the longest-serving independent Prime Minister in the history of Italy. Moreover, his first cabinet was described by many publications, such as The New York Times and la Repubblica, as the "first modern populist government in Western Europe".

He started his academic career during the 1990s, when he taught at Roma Tre University, at LUMSA University in Rome, at the University of Malta and at the University of Sassari. Conte is currently professor of private law at the University of Florence and at LUISS of Rome. He sits on the board of trustees of John Cabot University in Rome.

After his family moved to San Giovanni Rotondo, Conte attended the Classical Lyceum "Pietro Giannone" near San Marco in Lamis and then studied law at the Sapienza University of Rome, where he graduated in 1988 with honors. For a short terms, Conte studied abroad. In 1992, he moved to the United States to study at Yale Law School and Duquesne University and at the International Culture Institute in Vienna in 1993. He later researched or lectured at Sorbonne University in 2000, Girton College, Cambridge in 2001 and New York University in 2008.

Giuseppe Conte (Italian pronunciation: [dʒuˈzɛppe ˈkonte] ; born 8 August 1964) is an Italian university professor, jurist and politician who has served as the 58th prime minister of Italy since June 2018.

Conte was born on 8 August 1964 into a middle class family at Volturara Appula, near Foggia. His father Nicola was a public employee in the local municipality, while his mother Lillina Roberti was an elementary school teacher.