ROME (Reuters) – Italy’s new government will make few substantial changes to the much-criticized labor reform adopted last year by former premier Mario Monti, Industry and Welfare Minister Enrico Giovannini told parliament on Tuesday.

The unpopular reform made it harder and more expensive to hire workers on temporary contracts and slightly easier to fire permanent staff.

ROME (Reuters) – President Giorgio Napolitano completed a rapid round of talks with Italy’s parties and is expected to name a new prime minister on Wednesday, ending a stalemate since February’s inconclusive election.

Italy has been politically adrift in the middle of a recession as the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), which has the most seats in parliament, failed for two months to cut a deal with the centre-right of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi or the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement.

ROME (Reuters) – Italy’s president held urgent talks on Tuesday aimed at naming a prime minister to head a coalition government backed by the rival parties on the centre-left and centre-right and end two months of post-election stalemate.

Hopes that a government can be formed quickly gave a further boost to financial markets on Tuesday, with the yield on 10-year Italian government bonds dropping below 4 percent and the spread, or risk premium over German bonds, narrowing further.

ROME (Reuters) – Italy’s president held urgent talks aimed at naming a prime minister on Tuesday after two months of post-election stalemate, with the young center-left mayor of Florence Matteo Renzi emerging as a late candidate for the job.

Former Prime Minister Giuliano Amato is widely considered to be the favored choice of President Giorgio Napolitano, who has the final say and is expected to make the appointment late on Tuesday or Wednesday.

ROME, April 16 (Reuters) – Thousands of idled Italian
workers staged a sit-in in front of parliament on Tuesday and
trade unions threatened strikes unless the government steps in
to back a temporary jobless scheme which is running out of
funds.

Italy’s often divided union confederations united to call on
Mario Monti’s caretaker government to find around 1.5 billion
euros to guarantee payments due to some 700,000 workers sent
home on reduced pay under the “cassa integrazione” scheme.

ROME (Reuters) – Meet the Grillini. They are the 162 very ordinary people who are now regarded with trepidation by financial markets and world leaders after this week’s Italian election failed to produce a government.

The Grillini – literally “little Grillos” – are the lawmakers elected for the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement of comic Beppe Grillo, which upset all forecasts by emerging as the largest party in Italy.

ROME, Feb 28 (Reuters) – Meet the Grillini. They are the 162
very ordinary people who are now regarded with trepidation by
financial markets and world leaders after this week’s Italian
election failed to produce a government.

The Grillini – literally “little Grillos” – are the
lawmakers elected for the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement of
comic Beppe Grillo, which upset all forecasts by emerging as the
largest party in Italy.

ROME (Reuters) – Beppe Grillo can allow himself a few days to bask in the afterglow of his triumph in Italy’s election, but soon the comedian who now leads the country’s largest party will face some tough political choices.

After a spectacular rise since its formation in 2009, Grillo’s anti-establishment 5-Star movement won a stunning 26 percent of lower house votes at the election, fractionally more than the centre-left Democratic Party (PD).

ROME (Reuters) – Beppe Grillo can allow himself a few days to bask in the afterglow of his triumph in Italy’s election, but soon the comedian who now leads the country’s largest party will face some tough political choices.

After a spectacular rise since its formation in 2009, Grillo’s anti-establishment 5-Star movement won a stunning 26 percent of lower house votes at the election, fractionally more than the center-left Democratic Party (PD).

MILAN/ROME (Reuters) – Swiss commodities trader Glencore (GLEN.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) is expected to present a letter of intent to buy U.S. aluminum maker Alcoa’s Italian plant in coming days as the Italian government redoubles efforts to find a buyer for the smelter.

“Glencore has committed to present a letter of intent to Alcoa within 10-15 days,” said Alberto Pili, an official at the Carbonia-Iglesias province where the Alcoa plant is located.