ITALIAN politicians have taken a step closer to resolution as the two populist parties able to form a government appeared ready to compromise with the country’s president.
Without a government since elections in March, the centrist anti-establishment Five Star Movement and the right-wing League had attempted to form an administration as the two biggest parties in the Italian parliament. But at the weekend president Sergio Mattarella vetoed their choice of finance minister – the Eurosceptic Paolo Savona who has advocated pulling Italy out of the Euro.
The possibility of Savona taking charge of Italy’s finances and economy led to markets around the world taking fright at the chance of him pulling Italy out of the Eurozone, and president Mattarella said he had to act for stability.
The leaders of Five Star and the League, Luigi Di Maio and Matteo Salvini, said their deal was off and Di Maio added that he wanted the president impeached,
President Mattarella effectively called their bluff by announcing that Carlo Cottarelli, known in Italy as Mr Scissors because of the harsh spending cuts he piloted through the Italian spending review, would form a so-called ‘technocratic’ administration.
Di Maio and Salvini in turn said they would oppose the new administration in the chamber of deputies, the lower house of the Italian parliament, which would automatically trigger another general election – the date of July 29 had already been mooted.
The League’s Salvini, buoyed by recent opinion polls in his party’s favour, said on Wednesday morning: “Let’s have a vote as soon as possible, but not at the end of July.”
But after a meeting between Di Maio and president Mattarella, the prospect of a coalition government between the Five Star Movement and the League came back on the table yesterday morning after the president delayed the installation of Cottarellli as PM.
As seems to be the way these days, the news broke on social media. Di Maio said on Facebook: “Let’s find someone of the same calibre as Savona, who would still remain in the government in another ministry.”
Salvini also cancelled a planned rally in Lombardy to have talks with the president and Di Maio on the possibility of forming a government. When he arrived at Rome airport and was asked about a possible solution to the crisis, Salvini told reporters: “You will have to be patient.”
He immediately left for meetings with Di Maio, president Mattarella and the man who looks likely to be the next prime minister should the League and Five Star agree a deal – Guiseppe Monte, who as a relative novice in politics has an unsullied reputation.
Reports in the Italian media yesterday evening quoted Carlo Cottarelli as favouring “a political government” and saying he is waiting for “further developments”, suggesting that he was awaiting the outcome of the Di Maio-Salvini summit.
It was also reported that professor Giovanni Tria had been lined up for the finance ministry with Savona being given European affairs, though neither of these possibilities has been confirmed.
The reliable Italian newspaper La Stampa reported that the Italian equivalent of foreign secretary would be Enzo Moavero-Milanesi.
The paper also suggested that Luigi Di Maio himself would be minister for economic development and labour, while Matteo Salvini would be appointed to the ministry of the interior, the equivalent of the Home Office in the UK.
Should these talks end with no government and with the Italian economy in freefall, the result for the EU would be worse than Brexit, according to Lithuania’s finance minister.
Dana Reizniece-Ozola, speaking during a panel discussion in Paris, said: “I think we can see what an impact Brexit has already caused to the EU in general.
“If Italy fails to form a government that might be still pro-European and still dedicated to the reforms and getting the country back within the fiscal stance, that might be a bigger harm to the whole of Europe.”
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