Italy's political stalemate
following last month's inconclusive general election has
continued with the lead players, the League and the
5-Star-Movement (M5S), still looking distant from reaching an
agreement to form a new government.
M5S leader Luigi Di Maio at the weekend reiterated his call
for the anti-migrant, Euroskeptic League to dump its
centre-right coalition partner, Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia
(FI), to make a deal possible.
But League leader Matteo Salvini said the anti-establishment
M5S should stop imposing vetoes and repeated his assertion that
a united centre-right coalition should be at the heart of the
next executive.
Di Maio is also looking towards the centre-left Democratic
Party (PD), which has said it will be in the opposition after
slumping to its worst-ever showing in the election, but could
reportedly reconsider its position of the stalemate becomes
prolonged.
President Sergio Mattarella said the parties had not made
significant progress towards the formation of a new government
after concluding the second round of formal consultations last
week and said he was taking a few days to assess things.
Salvini on Monday hit back at Di Maio for saying the centre
right's unity was harmful to the country after last month's
inconclusive general election.
"What Di Maio judges to be harmful, the united centre right,
is what the votes rewarded in the March 4 election," Salvini
said as he started the campaign for the upcoming regional
election in Molise.
"I ask Di Maio to have respect for the voters," added
Salvini, whose group is the lead party in the centre-right
alliance that came first in the election, while the M5S was the
top single party.
"I say there are no dangerous parties or dangerous voters and
I call on the others to do likewise".
Salvini also said Monday that he would not have any
involvement in a government featuring the PD in response to an
interview given by outgoing Industry Minister Carlo Calenda.
"I dialogue with everyone, but the only fixed point is that
you can't do anything with the PD," Salvini said.
"To Calenda I say - mamma mia! What could a government with
those who approved the Fornero (pension reform) and want
migrants do?".
Earlier on Monday Calenda, who recently joined the
centre-left PD, said that the headline to interview he gave to
La Repubblica, suggesting he was proposing a pact between the
PD, League and the M5S, was misleading.
"I do argue, on the other hand, that given the situation of
stalemate and the deterioration of the international crisis, it
would be right to propose a government of transition supported
by all the political parties and a bilateral commission to
intervene in the election law and other incomplete reforms".
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