AKIPRESS.COM - After 88 days of impasses and negotiations, two Italian populist parties with a history of antagonism toward the European Union received approval Thursday night to create a government that has already unsettled the Continent’s political order, NYTimes reported.

Only days ago, President Sergio Mattarella of Italy rejected a populist government over concerns about a proposed finance minister who had helped write a guide for withdrawing Italy from the euro, Europe’s single currency. The political chaos and sudden uncertainty about the euro helped send global financial markets reeling.

On Thursday, the populists reshuffled, keeping the same prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, and other top players, but moving the objectionable finance minister to a less critical post.

That was apparently enough to satisfy the president, who preferred an elected government to a caretaker alternative he had in reserve. The populist parties constituting the new government won the most votes in a March 4 election, promising a sweeping crackdown on the illegal immigration that helped fuel their ascent.

But the president’s assent was not enough to allay concerns about the actual agenda of the populists once they enter power, even though they now claim a sudden conversion to full faith in the euro.

“The populist and right-wing government has a program that’s dangerous for the country and the events of recent days confirm our longstanding concerns,” said Maurizio Martina, a leader of the Democratic Party, which will now leave government for the opposition. “Their acts so far have been a mix of extremism, anti-Europism and iniquity.”