By Angelo Amante and Giuseppe Fonte
ROME - Rightist leader Giorgia Meloni, who is expected to head Italy's next government, is struggling to find an economy minister as technocrats resist calls to join her administration, multiple sources told Reuters.
Meloni's Brothers of Italy party led a conservative bloc to victory at a general election last month and the Treasury is widely seen as the most important and difficult position to fill given a grim economic outlook.
Meloni wants to pick a minister seen as reassuring for investors, who could otherwise be worried that her government will abandon outgoing Prime Minister Mario Draghi's commitment to sustainable public finances and the implementation of the EU's post-COVID investment programme.
But the task is proving difficult.
European Central Bank board member Fabio Panetta has already made clear he is not interested in the job, and sources said current Economy Minister Daniele Franco is not willing to stay on and join a right-wing administration.
Dario Scannapieco, the head of state lender CDP, has also declined the offer, another source said.
Morgan Stanley executive Domenico Siniscalco, who already held the position 17 years ago, is available to take the job but Meloni has not contacted him, according to political sources.
Former Economy Minister Vittorio Grilli and Biagio Mazzotta, the head of state auditors at the Treasury, are under consideration for the position, sources said. Contacted by Reuters, neither immediately replied to a request for comment.
POLITICIANS IN FOCUS
Reluctance among technocrats is pushing the rightist bloc - which includes Matteo Salvini's League and Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia - to turn to career politicians for the role.
"We have worthy people among those elected in parliament," a right-wing coalition senior official told Reuters, asking not to be named.
Among those listed as possible candidates are League deputy leader Giancarlo Giorgetti and Maurizio Leo, a senior economic adviser to Meloni who is in charge of her party's fiscal policies, the senior lawmaker said.
However, Giorgetti is believed not to be willing to take on such a role. "He would have to address all big spending demands coming from the coalition," a League lawmaker said, asking not to be named.
Time is running out for Meloni.
The new parliament holds its first meeting on Thursday to elect house speakers and she could receive a formal mandate from the president to form a government next week, probably after a meeting of EU leaders on Oct. 20-21, a political source said.
The interior ministry is another potential problem. League chief Salvini, who held the job in 2018-19, has said he wanted it back to implement his hard-line on illegal immigration.
But the coalition official said Salvini was unlikely to get his way because he was currently standing trial over his handling of a migrant rescue ship during his time as minister.