Mario Monti replaced Silvio Berlusconi as Italy's new prime minister and named himself finance minister in a new cabinet unveiled today, tasked with saving the euro zone heavyweight from bankruptcy.
Corrado Passera, chief executive of Italy's biggest retail bank Intesa Sanpaolo, will also head up a reinforced economic development and infastructures ministry charged with boosting the anaemic growth rate.
Monti will be formally sworn in later this afternoon ahead of a handover ceremony with Berlusconi, the flamboyant tycoon who resigned on Saturday after ruling for 10 of the past 17 years.
A confidence vote in parliament expected as early as tomorrow will then launch the new technocratic government, which will have to act fast to reassure the international community that Italy is serious about implementing reforms.
As he scrambled to put together his cabinet this week, Monti sought to build consensus around the idea that Italians will have to make "sacrifices" to stave off bankruptcy and has called for "economic, social and civil growth."
Monti has won endorsements from all of Italy's main political forces but he faces a major challenge in steering a course through a fractious political world, with particularly intense sniping from Berlusconi's allies. Monti has already won the support of more than half of Italians according to a poll by IPR Marketing, which said 53% favour him.
Tense markets fluctuated ahead of today's nomination, with the rate on Italian 10-year bonds moving once again above the 7% warning threshold. Stocks also bounced wildly - dropping into the negative shortly before the event after soaring over 2.5% in morning trading, in line with rises and falls on other European markets today.
Despite Monti's 10-year stint in Brussels, the technocrat has never held office in Italy but has already shown mettle by insisting that his government has to stay in power until 2013 - the scheduled date for the next general election.
As European commissioner, Monti famously fined US technology giant Microsoft nearly €500m and blocked a massive $42-billion merger between General Electric and Honeywell.
Monti, a starkly different figure from his famously larger-than-life predecessor, has said he is "absolutely convinced" Italy can overcome its debt crisis but will have to move quickly.
The European Union had already given its firm approval to Monti even before his formal confirmation, but has warned that Italy may need to impose extra budget cuts on top of two austerity plans approved earlier this year.
The EU and the International Monetary Fund this month imposed a humiliating auditing mechanism on the country, the euro zone's third largest economy and an EU founding member, to ensure it is fulfilling its reform promises.
Italy's high public debt of €1.9 trillion is relatively stable and its deficit relatively low, but the country's lack of growth and recent political weakness have pushed up borrowing costs.
