Renzi stalwart asked to propose list of new ministers in record time.

Outgoing foreign minister Paolo Gentiloni has been invited by President Sergio Mattarella to form a new government following the resignation of prime minister Matteo Renzi in the wake of his crushing defeat in the constitutional referendum on 4 December.

Gentiloni, a loyal member of Renzi’s own Partito Democratico (PD), has accepted the invitation subject to verification of support through consultations with all the parties represented in parliament.

The right-wing and anti-European opposition party Lega Nord and the anti-establishment Movimento Cinque Stelle (M5S) have refused to attend the talks.

“I am aware of the urgent need to give Italy a government with full powers,” said 62-year-old Gentiloni, adding that he would move “within the same framework” as his predecessor given the “unwillingness of the opposition parties to participate in a government of responsibility”.

He also said he would facilitate the process of drawing up a new electoral law to replace the two separate laws currently governing the election of the chamber of deputies and senate.

Italy’s former chief diplomat is expected to present a proposed list of ministers to Mattarella on Monday. This will likely contain many of the names in the outgoing cabinet, but there will also be a few new entries to reflect the support for the new government in parliament.

Meanwhile Renzi left Palazzo Chigi, the seat of government, definitively on Sunday.

In a post to his Facebook page Renzi said he had “suffered” in closing the packing cases, but that his experience as a boy scout taught him that “an arrival serves only to set off once again”.

He also appeared to confirm his commitment to politics.

Photo. La Repubblica