by Eric J. Lyman
ROME, May 24 (Xinhua) -- A day after law professor Giuseppe Conte was named as Italian prime minister, local media reports mostly focused his lack of a national profile or the challenges that await him to balance the priorities of the two disparate parties that nominated him, while the international press told a different story.
Many domestic media outlets focused on the expected difficulties 53-year-old Conte will face in that role: Il Fatto Quotidiano ran a photo of Conte on a tightrope under the headline "The Acrobat." The left-wing daily Il Manifesto's main headline Thursday read, "Populistland."
"The reaction in the media is not particularly harsh, especially when we think of the reception that Matteo Renzi received when he became prime minister in 2014, or the way former Rome mayor Ignazio Marino was attacked when he first emerged in 2013," Arianna Montanari, a political sociologist with Rome's La Sapienza University, told Xinhua.
"I think the supporters of the Five-Star Movement and the League were the ones doing most of the attacking," Montanari said. "Now they are protecting the prime minister."
Montanari said that situation creates what she called an "artificial consensus."
That does not mean the government will have an easy time. This will be the first time Five-Star Movement leader Luigi di Maio and Matteo Salvini from the League will have a role in a national government. But at least they are well known figures nationally, unlike Conte.
Multiple Italian media referred to Conte as a "newcomer" or as "unknown." One regional news site called him the "mystery premier."
Internationally, there was much more criticism, including widespread worries about how the new government will impact the European Union. That stems from the euro-skeptic stances from both parties.
Among the policies sparking concern beyond Italy: the parties' doubts about the future of the euro currency, plans for dramatic curbs on immigration, an eagerness to ignore European Union rules on budget deficits, and a demand that the European Central Bank forgive 250 billion euros (300 billion U.S. dollars) in Italian debt.
In London, the Times said, "Alarm in Europe as Italy's populists rise to power." The Sun called Conte an "Unknown leader of [a] bizarre Italian coalition." In France, Le Figaro called him an agent of an "anti-system," while Liberation said Conte was a symptom of a "cruel lack of political and economic alternatives."
In the United States, the New York Times predicted the new government would "challenge the EU at its heart" and a "new threat to Europe."
