Doubts over Italy's would-be prime minister

Giuseppe Conte, right, with the leader of the Five-Star Movement, Luigi Di Maio. Photo / AP file

The search for Italy's next prime minister was thrown into disarray after doubts were cast over the suitability for the post of law professor Giuseppe Conte, the candidate chosen by populist allies.

Conte is no longer certain of endorsement by Luigi Di Maio of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement and Matteo Salvini of the anti-immigrant League, according to a Five Star official who declined to be named.

Di Maio himself may be back in the running for the premiership, the official said.

La Repubblica earlier reported doubts on Conte.

A League official, however, said the reported questioning of Conte's candidacy was not completely accurate, without elaborating.

The New York Times earlier today questioned Conte's curriculum vitae, which says that he stayed from 2008 to 2012, every summer and "for periods of not less than a month, at New York University, to perfect and update his studies."

The newspaper quoted an NYU spokeswoman as saying Conte's name did not show up in records as either a student or faculty member, adding it was possible he attended one or two-day programmes for which the school does not keep records.

Five Star said in a statement that Conte in his CV "clearly wrote that he perfected and updated his studies at New York University. He never cited lessons or masters degrees attended at that university."

Di Maio said yesterday he had proposed Conte, a 53-year-old law professor from Florence University to lead a coalition government with the League. President Sergio Mattarella is reviewing Conte's dossier, and may take a decision tomorrow, newswire ANSA reported.

Salvini has said that neither he nor Di Maio will be premier. Five Star officials said until shortly before Conte's selection that Di Maio had not given up on hopes of becoming premier himself, as leader of the biggest party in the alliance.

- Bloomberg

Future Italian PM and law professor Giuseppe Conte: First, no one at NYU had heard of him. Now Cambridge. And the institute in Vienna he listed is a language school. If a CV sounds too good to be true... Via @ZoraHauser @guardian @nminkmar @AlbertoNardelli pic.twitter.com/9Gcrw30FIT

— Peter R. Neumann (@PeterRNeumann) May 22, 2018