Govt to stay until 2018 - Gentiloni

(ANSA) - Rome, March 6 - The government is not 'provisional' and intends to remain in office until the natural end of the current parliament in early 2018 with a programme of structural reforms in continuity with that of its predecessor, Premier Paolo Gentiloni has said.
    "We have lots of things to complete that the (Matteo) Renzi government did, and new and important things," Gentiloni told veteran TV presenter Pippo Baudo during the Sunday variety show Domenica In.
    His agenda includes further reducing labour taxes "in order to make investments more advantageous", he said. Other planned areas of structural intervention include poverty-reduction measures, the disadvantaged Southern regions, criminal procedure and competition rules, Gentiloni added. The premier said he wants to see a "change of pace" in government activity following a "breathless start" partly caused by snow and earthquake emergencies in central Italy.
    Gentiloni was nominated to form a new government in December following the resignation of Renzi after his crushing defeat in the constitutional reform referendum earlier that month.
    Most of the ministers in the Renzi executive were confirmed in post.