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意大利国会给新政府开绿灯
ROME, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Italy's new coalition1 government on Tuesday got the green light from parliament, winning the second of two confidence votes that gave full powers to Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and his team to start working on promised reforms.
"Italy has this only chance," the 39-year-old leader of the largest party in parliament, the center-left Democratic Party (PD), repeated as he sought confidence of the Senate and lower chamber2 in a two-day marathon.
The urgency of necessary reforms, he said, had left no space for further loss of time.
Less than three months have passed since Renzi was elected as the PD secretary and started blaming his predecessor3 Enrico Letta, who used to be the party deputy head, for his slowness in addressing persisting economic crisis.
Days ago, Renzi called a meeting of PD leadership to oust4 Letta and replace him at the helm of Italy, supported by his same left-right coalition.
The PD formed the ruling alliance with the New Center Right (NCD) led by Interior Minister Angelino Alfano, a former ally of three-time premier5 Silvio Berlusconi, whose center-right Forza Italia (FI) was in the opposition6 along with the anti-establishment Five-Star Movement (M5S).
Renzi, who defined himself as the "demolition7 man" of senescent politicians, presented in his first speech in parliament on Monday a program of structural8 reforms that he has pledged to introduce "immediately" and that analysts9 have defined as "hugely ambitious."
The commitment to reduce income and labor10 taxes by more than 10 billion euros (13.7 billion U.S. dollars) and pay all government debts to private companies were among the most crucial moves in a country where nearly 135,000 small businesses were reported to have gone bankrupt since 2008.
Among the promised institutional reforms, which were equally important in order to simplify heavy bureaucracy, there were reduction of the number of lawmakers, abolition11 of the Senate's lawmaking power and introduction of a new electoral law to produce more stable governments.
Renzi said that his team will achieve the reform targets over the next four months, before Italy takes the European Union (EU)'s rotating presidency12 for the second half of 2014.
"If we lose this challenge, it will be my fault entirely13, there will be no excuse," said the youngest-ever prime minister in Italy leading the youngest-ever government.
In his view, Italy must give a "fundamental contribution" to the EU because "without Italy there is no Europe."
Renzi's first foreign visit as Italian prime minister next week will be Tunis, in the heart of the Mediterranean14 sea that Italy hopes "will once again be central," he said on Tuesday.
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1 coalition | |
n.结合体,同盟,结合,联合 | |
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2 chamber | |
n.房间,寝室;会议厅;议院;会所 | |
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3 predecessor | |
n.前辈,前任 | |
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4 oust | |
vt.剥夺,取代,驱逐 | |
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5 premier | |
adj.首要的;n.总理,首相 | |
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6 opposition | |
n.反对,敌对 | |
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7 demolition | |
n.破坏,毁坏,毁坏之遗迹 | |
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8 structural | |
adj.构造的,组织的,建筑(用)的 | |
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9 analysts | |
分析家,化验员( analyst的名词复数 ) | |
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10 labor | |
n.劳动,努力,工作,劳工;分娩;vi.劳动,努力,苦干;vt.详细分析;麻烦 | |
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11 abolition | |
n.废除,取消 | |
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12 presidency | |
n.总统(校长,总经理)的职位(任期) | |
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13 entirely | |
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地 | |
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14 Mediterranean | |
adj.地中海的;地中海沿岸的 | |
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