Liguria Governor Giovanni
Toti, Silvio Berlusconi's political advisor, on Wednesday called
for a single centre-right ticket for the next general election.
Toti's call came after ex-premier Berlusconi, the leader of
the centre-right Forza Italia (FI) party, vowed to revive a
previously successful alliance with the anti-immigrant and
anti-euro Northern League, which has become the top force on the
right thanks to populist leader Matteo Salvini.
Toti said the two parties, as well as other smaller
rightwing parties, would be forced by Italy's new election law
to make common cause unless that law, known as the Italicum, was
repealed.
The Italicum gives a winner's bonus to the top party or
ticket, rather than to a coalition.
"In order to win we'll have to stick together and the
Italicum, unless it is changed, today forces us, if we want to
be competitive, to think of a single centre-right ticket for
2018," Toti said.
"It would be just as well that everyone accepts this and
starts pulling in the same direction".
The centre right is split on who should lead such a group.
Giorgia Meloni, leader of the rightwing Fratelli d'Italia
(FdI) party which rallied together with FI and the League in
Bologna at the weekend, said Wednesday that "Berlusconi can't
have the same role he did 20 years ago," when he swept to the
first of his three terms as premier.
Forza Italia has denied it is veering towards the more
radical positions of the League.
Former finance minister Renato Brunetta, an FI heavyweight,
on Wednesday described talk of Berlusconi being over-influenced
by Salvini's tough stances as "a joke".
The next general election is currently scheduled to take
place in 2018 but some observers think that Premier Matteo
Renzi, leader of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), may push
for an early vote soon after hopefully winning a referendum on
the Italicum late next year.
The PD is polling at about 34%, the League at 14-15% and FI
at around 10%, with FdI on 3%.
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