(ROME) — Italy's new government easily passed its first confirmation vote Monday in Parliament after Premier Enrico Letta made concessions to his uneasy coalition allies, promising to ease part of a slate of austerity measures that have weighed on Italians impatient at the slow pace of economic recovery. While pledging the country will do what the eurozone wants to improve its public finances and debt problem, the center-left leader has to placate his tense two-day-old coalition, including former premier Silvio Berlusconi's conservatives, whose support he needs for confirmation. The lower house of Parliament, the Chamber of Deputies, approved his fledgling government by a vote of 453 to 153. The government faces the second mandatory confidence vote of confirmation in the Senate on Tuesday afternoon. (MORE: Italy's Compromise Government Faces Uncertain Future, Plays Into Berlusconi's Hands) Bending in part to a key Berlusconi campaign promise, Letta said his government will immediately suspend an unpopular tax on primary residences due in June and make it fairer to less affluent taxpayers. He also pledged not to raise the sales tax and to reduce some payroll taxes. "Reducing taxes is a priority," Letta said, promising he would "pinpoint a strategy to revive growth without interfering with the process to heal finances." The European Union has insisted on rigorous austerity to heal Italy's finances, but the public's patience has been tried by spending cuts and higher taxes. Voters across the continent have been rebelling against governments that have imposed such measures. While Letta stressed the urgency of reducing the tax burden on homeowners, consumers and businesses, he didn't say how he planned to make up for the reduced revenues. He might have to resort to more spending cuts, which could ultimately sharpen an already harsh part of the austerity agendas. Markets appeared pleased over Letta's brand new government. Italy's stock market was trading up some 2.2 percent at the market's close, while the country's borrowing costs on its 10-year bonds dropped below 4 percent for the first time since 2010. The failure of Letta's party to(http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=world.time.com&blog=19871253&post=84370&subd=timeglobalspin&ref=&feed=1)
Via: TIME GlobalSpin