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Italyâ€™s new PM wins final vote of confidence

26 February 2014 04:54 (UTC +04:00)

The vote on Tuesday will allow Renzi to officially lead the country’s youngest-ever government.

Renzi’s coalition, which has a majority in parliament, brings together his center-left Democratic Party (PD), the New Center Right party, as well as other centrist and smaller groups.

He won the backing of the lower house or the Chamber of Deputies by 378 votes to 220.

Earlier in the day, Renzi’s government was approved by Italian senators in the upper house of parliament by a 169-139 vote.

The 39-year-old prime minister has pledged to revolutionize the country’s recession-hit economy by simplifying the tax system, slashing unemployment and cutting red tape.

Parliamentary reforms and the introduction of a new, much-needed electoral law are also on his agenda.

"Italy's finest page has yet to be written," Renzi said in his first address to the lower house before the vote, adding that radical changes were needed to revive the country’s sluggish economy.

Renzi, who has been the mayor of Florence and leader of the PD, presented his 16 ministers, including eight women, on Friday and took his oath on Saturday.

A poll on Friday by the SWG polling institute showed that only 27 percent of the Italians were hopeful about the new government.

Italy, the eurozone’s third largest economy, has been suffering from deep recession for more than two years, with its unemployment rate as high as 12.7 percent in December.