Italy's would-be populist prime minister faces difficult questions about accuracy of his CV

Giuseppe Conte is poised to lead the new Five Star Movement–far right coalition government

5-Star Movement leader Luigi Di Maio with Giuseppe Conte (Reuters)

The man nominated to lead Italy’s incoming populist government as its next prime minister has been forced to fend off questions about whether he really studied at the prestigious colleges his CV claims he did.

Giuseppe Conte, a relatively unknown politician from the Five Star Movement apparently heading for the top job, said on his official 12-page résumé that he “refined” his studies of law at the world famous private New York University in 2008 and 2009.

But the Italian press erupted on Tuesday after a report in the New York Times claimed NYU had no records of the would-be prime minister ever attending the institution.

Italian daily Corriere della Sera dubbed the row “il caso del curriculum” (the case of the CV) while the country’s other major newspaper La Repubblica put the claims on its front page and published an op-ed characterising the episode as “a little embarrassing” for Mr Conte.

The country’s press has also honed in on other apparent irregularities with the document. Mr Conte also said he had attended the International Kultur Institut in Vienna to refine his legal studies. The Kultur Institut is however a language school and does not offer legal courses, according to its website.

The politician, who previously acted as the personal lawyer for Luigi Di Maio, the leader of the Five Star Movement, also claimed that he pursued his legal studies at Yale University, Duquesne University, the Sorbonne in Paris, and the University of Cambridge. Cambridge was unable to immediately confirm or deny whether Mr Conte had attended, citing confidentiality rules.

A spokesperson for the Five Star Movement said in a statement that the criticism of the would-be prime minister’s CV showed that the press was “so afraid of this government of change”.

 It is the umpteenth confirmation that they [the press] are so afraid of this government of change

M5S spokesperson

“In his curriculum Giuseppe Conte wrote with clarity that he perfected and updated his studies at New York University. But he did not cite courses or say he completed a master’s at the university,” the spokesperson said.

“Conte, like any scholar, has studied abroad, enriched his knowledge, and perfected his legal English. For a professor of his level, the opposite would have been strange. He did it and rightly wrote it in the curriculum vitae, but paradoxically this is not good now and it even becomes a fault. It is the umpteenth confirmation that the press are so afraid of this government of change.”

The populist Five Star Movement is moving to form a coalition with the far-right League party after the two groups made major gains in the country’s parliamentary elections earlier this year.

On Friday the two groups published a joint programme for government that included tax cuts, a rolling back of pension cuts, and a promise to deport irregular migrants arriving in Italy by boat. The government, if successfully formed, would be the first Eurosceptic-led cabinet to lead a major European Union core member.