Ruling centre-left Democratic
Party (PD) Premier Paolo Gentiloni made a key electoral move on
exempting more elderly from the RAI State broadcaster license
fee Monday but Free and Equal (LeU) leader Pietro Grasso said
the PD man could not be premier after the March 4 elections,
having rammed though a "fraudulent" electoral law.
Meanwhile former PD mandarin, ex-premier and LeU bigwig
Massimo D'Alema said it was "lunacy" to think that the PD could
win the general election.
And on the right, anti-migrant, Eurospetic League leader
Massimo Salvini reiterated to his alliance partner Silvio
Berlusconi that if the billionaire's Forza Italia (FI) gets one
vote more than the League, then the three-time former premier
and media magnate gets to choose who will be premier.
Gentiloni said Monday that 350,000 over-75s would be exempted
from paying the RAI State broadcaster license fee.
The number is thus raised from 115,000 at present, he said.
A decree was just signed at the industry ministry, the
premier said.
Gentiloni said this would mean "significant" relief for
Italy's elderly.
But Grasso came out against the widely touted possibility of
Gentiloni remaining as premier after march 4, in the likely
event of a hung parliament.
The LeU leader criticised the PD premier on the country's
controversial election law, on the sidelines of an election
event on education and research in Bologna.
"Let's not forget that Gentiloni is the one who put three
confidence votes to the Lower House and five to the Senate to
approve a fraudulent election law, because as we have seen, it
gives a vote to one list and others from another list are
elected," Grasso said.
The so-called Rosatellum 2 election law, a mix of
first-past-the-post and proportional representation, has a
ballot slip that critics say may sow confusion among voters.
The former Senate Speaker added that it was "premature" to
talk about the LeU reuniting with the PD to form a single
centre-left bloc.
Meanwhile D'Alema, the former centre-left premier, said it
was "lunacy to think that the PD can win the election" with it
trailing badly in the last polls out Friday before a
pre-election ban on polling.
On the right, League leader Salvini meanwhile told
Berlusconi, reaffirming their pre-election deal: "if you get
just one more vote than me then you can choose the premier".
Salvini, whose party was trailing FI by about three points in
the last polls, is running as premier candidate but Berlusconi
cannot run because of a tax-evasion-linked office ban that runs
out next year.
The media magnate turned politician has touted European
Parliament President Antonio Tajani to be FI's premier
candidate.
Polls said Friday the centre-right alliance would win but not
get enough to form a majority.
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