The Italian foreign minister, Paolo Gentiloni, has been chosen by Italy’s president to replace Matteo Renzi as prime minister, a choice that signals continuity in the centre-left government’s domestic and foreign policies at a volatile time for the eurozone’s third-largest economy.

Gentiloni said he had accepted the mandate set for him by Italy’s president, Sergio Mattarella, after the leaders of the country’s opposition parties had failed to agree to “share responsibilities” and create a coalition government together.

“I consider this a high honour that I will try to carry out with dignity and responsibility,” he said moments after the decision was made public. He added that he hoped to form a new government soon, which would help Italy “reassure fellow citizens” and face its international obligations.

Gentiloni’s new role will not be official until he chooses his cabinet and secures a vote of confidence in parliament. A vote will probably occur early this week.

The decision to choose Gentiloni, an experienced minister in Renzi’s government who is not seen as harbouring his own political ambitions, virtually guarantees that Mattarella will call for early elections in 2017, before the natural end of the parliamentary term in 2018. It also means his tenure is likely to be influenced by Renzi, who remains at the helm of the Democratic party.

The change in leadership comes one week after Renzi was defeated in a referendum on constitutional reforms, with about 60% of Italians voting down the measure. Renzi had vowed to resign if he lost the vote and he followed through on that promise on Wednesday after overseeing the passage of the country’s 2017 budget in parliament.



The biggest and most immediate crisis facing the incoming prime minister is a financial one. On Friday, the European Central Bank rejected a request by Monte dei Paschi, the world’s oldest bank, for more time to arrange a necessary capital infusion by a consortium of private investors. The decision means that the Italian government may have to intervene to save the Siena-based bank, which is facing collapse because it holds billions of euros of non-performing loans on its balance sheet.

The board of MPS was expected to meet on Sunday night. The swift choice of Gentiloni could be seen as an attempt to assuage nervous investors and save the proposed recapitalisation of the bank.

Mattarella’s decision to pick Gentiloni means that he has the backing of the current parliamentary majority, led by his own Democratic party (PD). But his stint will be a temporary one with both the PD and its opposition, the anti-establishment Five Star Movement, pressing for early elections.

Italy is awaiting a critical decision by the constitutional court on the legal status of the country’s electoral law. The ruling is expected on 24 January. Once the decision is heard, it will have major consequences on how parliamentary seats are distributed in future elections.



If things go according to Renzi’s plan, Gentiloni would resign and new elections would be called once the electoral law is changed to reflect the court’s ruling. If Renzi can maintain the backing of his party, he will probably then lead the PD into the next elections.

In many respects, Gentiloni could not be more different from his excitable, charismatic – some say arrogant – predecessor. The 62-year-old native of Rome, who is nearly two decades older than Renzi and hails from a noble family, was a journalist before he began a career in politics in 1993, becoming a spokesman for the then mayor of Rome, Francesco Rutelli.

Gentiloni, who is Catholic, was elected to parliament in 2001, where he served as the chief broadcasting watchdog during the second term of conservative prime minister and media mogul Silvio Berlusconi. In that role, he frequently clashed with Berlusconi and criticised the conservative premier’s grip on Italy’s major broadcasters. He also helped defeat legislation that would have expanded Berlusconi’s control of Italian media.

Gentiloni’s politics were more radical in his younger days. At university he was a member of a leftwing student movement and then joined a socialist party before becoming a director of a pro-environment newspaper, La Nuova Ecologia. In 2002, he founded The Daisy party, which later helped form the current Democratic party.

After an unsuccessful attempt to represent the PD in a Rome mayoral contest, Gentiloni was chosen in 2014 by Renzi to succeed his first foreign minister, Federica Mogherini, after she was selected as the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy.



In his tenure as foreign minister, Gentiloni, who speaks fluent English, has worked closely with his US counterpart, John Kerry, in trying to bolster the UN-backed government in Libya and has been seen as a strong ally of the outgoing Obama administration.

A senior US Department of State official praised Gentiloni, saying he pursued diplomacy with “energy, focused determination, and initiative”.

“He knows the world’s trouble spots and takes action to shape events. For instance, he has been personally involved in trying to counter the forces of chaos in Libya ‎through a mix of diplomatic and humanitarian initiatives, which have made a difference there on the ground,” the official said.

At the same time, Gentiloni has gone out of his way to try to court Russia. Asked at a conference last month about comments he made previously suggesting that the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, could be trusted, Gentiloni said: “Italy has never cultivated nostalgia for the cold war.

“Together with our allies we have supported the need for dialogue with Moscow and to fully cooperate against terrorism. However, dialogue is not sufficient to rebuild trust. We are awaiting tangible steps forward on the Minsk agreements and for Russia to commit to stop Assad from bombing east Aleppo,” he said.