Italian Lower House Also Backs New PM

The new Prime Minister of Italy, Matteo Renzi, received the support of the Parliament's lower house through a vote of confidence on Tuesday.

The MPs declared their approval of his government's programme, which envisages rapid economic and constitutional growth.

In his speech before the confidence motion, the new head of government declared that problems in Italian job market would be his top priority in the near future, leading Spanish agency ABC has reported.

The vote was clearly in favour of Renzi, as 378 lawmakers supported him and 220 were against.

Earlier on Tuesday, he also won the confidence of the Senate, which is the upper house.

With the backing of both Italian houses, 39-year-old Renzi's place as the youngest PM in modern Italian history has been confirmed.

Renzi has vowed to revise the tax system and to increase his country's role in EU decision-making, as well as in the bloc's relations with its Mediterranean neighbors.

To cast no doubt on his intention, he has announced his first trip would be to Tunisia, as the BBC reports.

Cutting income tax, constitutional reforms, investment in job creation and abolishing the Senate as a legislative body were among the promises that, combined with his charismatic style, brought him to power after he ousted the previous Prime Minister and party colleague, Enrico Letta.

Letta lost the support of his centre-left Democratic Party after its key members expressed their doubt at his ability to cope with Italy's recovery from the crisis.

Renzi, on the other hand, has promised to implement all the reforms announced by him in just four months.

Italy, with the third-largest GDP in the Eurozone, has suffered significant damage and is still trying to find its way out of the financial turmoil that spread across the region. Its huge public debt amounts to EUR 2.1 trillion, which is about 133% the size of its economy.

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