Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi today called for a "radical and immediate change" in the country in an energetic and impassioned speech to Parliament, which outlined his government programme but was light on detail.
The new premier said there were no excuses for failing to tackle the recession-hit country's ills and told senators that Italy would become a "country of opportunity" in a largely ad-lib speech ahead of a confidence vote in the upper house of Parliament.
"If we lose this challenge the fault will be all mine. No one has an alibi anymore," said the 39-year-old, youngest ever Prime Minister of the country.
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"This is an Italy of possibilities, an Italy of fundamental change," he added stressing the "urgency" of implementing reforms in "a rusty country gripped by anxiety".
Renzi, who grasped power after helping oust his predecessor Enrico Letta over failures to do enough to boost a flagging economy, reiterated plans for rapidly overhauling the tax system, job market and public administration.
He pledged to review unemployment benefits, establish a guarantee fund for small companies and comprehensively reform the justice system and promised to cut the tax burden by a double-digit figure by the first half of 2014 and pay off public administration debts.
He also spoke of the need for greater transparency of making public spending receipts available online and of the need to attract foreign investors and shake off the image of Italy "as just a great holiday destination".
The confidence vote later today will be a key test of Renzi's power to unite warring factions in Italy's Parliament and secure a solid majority.
The former mayor of Florence is expected to win based on the support of his own centre-left Democratic Party (DP) and his coalition partners, the centrists and the New Centre Right (NCD) party.
"We are not afraid of going to the polls," Renzi said.
Former Premier Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia (FI) party is in opposition, although it has agreed to support key decrees on a case by case basis.
