(25 Feb 2014) Italy's Premier Matteo Renzi won a crucial confidence vote in Parliament early on Tuesday, managing for now, to avoid further questioning from among his own Democrats over his speedy rise to power.
The Senate vote came hours after he argued that he could get his country back to work, a promise the last three premiers had failed on.
"We want to bring a new jobs reform, a different justice reform, a different tax policy and a different policy on the public administration," he said.
At 39, Renzi is Italy's youngest premier, and was sworn into office on Saturday along with an unusually young Cabinet, with many of the ministers newcomers to national government.
The Senate voted 169 -139 to confirm Renzi's broad coalition, which ranges from his centre-left Democrats to centre-right forces formerly loyal to ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi.
There has been anger among his own party over his heavy-handed tactics to wrestle the premiership from fellow Democrat Enrico Letta.
His predecessor led a coalition with the same tense partners for 10 months, but Renzi engineered his exit after industrialists and union leaders grew impatient with tentative efforts to energise the economy after years of stagnation.
Renzi insisted that debt-laden Italy must heal its public finances not because Germany's Angela Merkel or the European Central Bank chief want that, but because "it's our children" who seek a future.
But there's been no indication as to how he's going to achieve this.
"There are a lot of dreams, a lot of discussions, but the most relevant issue is that he did not refer to a possible source of financial cover (to fund) all his beautiful dreams," said Italian Senator Maria Mussini.
Renzi needed at least 155 votes to clinch the victory on Tuesday, one of two mandatory confidence votes, the second was expected later in the day.
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