ROME _ Italian President Sergio Mattarella Sunday asked Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni to form a new government after Matteo Renzi's resignation as prime minister.
Gentiloni, who met President Sergio Mattarella at the presidential palace in Rome, provisionally accepted the request. Gentiloni said after the meeting that he would decide "as soon as possible."
"I am aware of the urgency of giving Italy a government with full powers, to reassure citizens and to tackle with the maximum commitment and determination international, economic and social priorities, starting with the reconstruction of the areas struck by the earthquake" earlier this year, Gentiloni said reporters.
Immediately after meeting Mattarella, Gentiloni met the speakers of both houses of parliament, starting talks with political figures before he returns to Mattarella state with a list of proposed ministers.
Gentiloni has long been a Renzi loyalist and can count on the support of their Democratic Party, the biggest in parliament.
Gentiloni noted that the biggest opposition parties had rejected Renzi's call for a new broad-based government. "So not out of choice, but because of a sense of responsibility, we will move within the framework of the outgoing government and majority," Gentiloni said.
Gentiloni is expected to make only a few changes to the government, with Finance Minister Pier Carlo Padoan staying on. Potential candidates for minister candidates include outgoing Culture Minister Dario Franceschini and Economic Development Minister Carlo Calenda.
As foreign minister for almost three years, Gentiloni helped Renzi push for European Union partners to share the burden of migrants crossing the Mediterranean from North Africa. He also co-chaired talks on the Libyan crisis with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
Gentiloni said that if his appointment as prime minister is confirmed, he would work on a new election law. Mainstream parties want to change the current law because they fear that an automatic majority, attributed to the leading party in the lower house, could benefit the anti-establishment Five Star Movement, which wants a referendum on Italy's membership in the Eurozone.
Opposition parties denounced Gentiloni's appointment as taking no account of the result of the Dec. 4 referendum, in which Renzi's party was one of the few to campaign for a 'Yes' vote to his proposed reform of the Senate.
"After the referendum defeat Renzi was supposed to leave politics, and instead he's the one who indicated Gentiloni, his 'avatar,' to Mattarella," Alessandro Di Battista, a Five Star leader, said in Facebook post. He called Gentiloni "yet another professional politician aiming to rob citizens of their sovereignty."
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(Cinelli reported from Milan.)
