Anti-establishment 5-Star
Movement (M5S) leader Luigi Di Maio upped the ante in the March
4 election campaign Thursday by challenging parties to agree to
the first of a series of "convergences" for a possible post-vote
M5S-led government.
Meanwhile, as Democratic Party (PD) leader and former premier
Matteo Renzi claimed the high ground on anti-Fascism, three-time
former premier and centre-right Forza Italia (FI) leader Silvio
Berlusconi said he would come out with the name of FI's premier
candidate before March 4.
Di Maio on Thursday proposed the first move he thinks parties
can "converge" on after the general election, halving
parliamentary salaries.
"Today I propose the first of a series of issues for a
government convergence," he said.
"All parties should now sign this act in which they vow to to
vote the bill halving the salaries of MPs and introducing
precise billing of reimbursements," he said.
Writing on the M5S blog, Di Maio said "we have shown that an
MP can live a more than dignified life while halving his
stipend."
He said: "the parties gobble up double salaries and pocket
all the reimbursements (for party spending) without providing
accounts of anything to anyone".
The M5S styles itself as being unlike the traditional
parties, which it says are wedded to perks and corruption.
However it has recently suffered a scandal in which eight
members were found not to have paid back money which they should
have according to the party statutes.
The case is threatening to spread to the European Parliament,
but Di Maio has listed just how much the M5S has given back and
says it will turn into a "boomerang" for other parties which are
not as "virtuous" as the M5S.
Also on Thursday, the M5S ejected two more candidates for
failing to inform them they were members of Masonic lodges.
First Piero Landi was thrown out for not informing them he
was in a Masonic lodge, the same reason it ejected Catello
Vitiello earlier this week, and then Calabria candidate Bruno
Azzerboni was also expelled.
"They did not tell the truth," the M5S said in a statement.
"For this reason they cannot stay in the M5S and for this
reason, again, they will be asked to give up their
constituencies.
"We bar them from using the (party) symbol and we reserve the
right to act in the appropriate fora with the aim of getting
compensation for possible damage to the party's image."
Also on Thursday, PD leader Renzi said while marking the
anniversary of Italy's worst Nazi atrocity in northern Tuscany
that those who are not against Fascism are unworthy of the
Italian community.
"Those who are not anti-Fascists are not worth of being part
of the Italian democratic community," Renzi said at the village
of Sant'Anna di Stazzema near Lucca, where Nazi soldiers killed
560 villages and refugees in 1944.
Renzi was speaking after signing the anti-Fascist citizens'
list at the shrine to the WWII massacre, and amid a rise in
reported far-right incidents including the racist shooting and
wounding of six African migrants in Macerata by a rightist
League ex-militant "avenging" the murder and dismemberment by
Nigerian drug pushers of an 18-year-old Italian woman.
Renzi went on to say that Italy "should not give an inch" in
educating young people about the evils of Fascism.
"Precisely because we believe in the State and in democracy,
we vow not to give an inch on educational values," he said.
"When a young man reads Mein Kampf, he can't think of
reading any old book, he is reading a book on absolute evil".
Meanwhile Berlusconi said he would give the name of the FI
premier candidate before the March 4 general election.
"I wanted to wait until the premier candidate himself gave me
the go ahead to give his name. I think I will be authorised to
do so before the vote," said the 81-year-old three-time
ex-premier and media magnate on RAI TV talk show Porta a Porta
Wednesday night while signing a new "pact with Italians" on the
FI manifesto.
Among the names the three-time ex-premier and media magnate
has touted is European Parliament President Antonio Tajani, an
FI member.
Berlusconi added that he thought there should be a quick
revote with the same election law if there is no clear outcome
on March 4.
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