Anti-migrant Euroskeptic League
leader Matteo Salvini on Friday disagreed with his main ally,
centre-right Forza Italia (FI) leader Silvio Berlusconi, on
possibly forming a government alliance with the centre-left
Democratic Party (PD).
Ex-premier Berlusconi said that, unlike his centre-right
alliance partners, he was not against forming a government with
the PD.
"I'm thinking of a centre-right government that looks towards
the mixed group (in parliament) and some figures from the PD,"
Berlusconi said.
"I think very differently to (Brothers of Italy leader)
Giorgia Meloni and (League leader) Matteo Salvini on this
point".
Salvini said that if Berlusconi were to try to form a
government with the PD he would have to do so without the
League.
"Berlusconi is wrong to say that the Italians vote badly and
he's wrong again when he says that the PD has to be brought back
into government," said Salvini.
"He isn't respectful towards the Italians and he would do so
(form a government with the PD) without the League", said the
rightwing populist leader.
Salvini added that he had not heard from Berlusconi and would
not hear from him either because "insults are no use and don't
build anything".
PD caretaker leader Maurizio Martina said no one would ever
split the PD amid the disagreement between Salvini and
Berlusconi on whether the PD should be approached for a possible
government alliance.
Martina said the PD was sticking to its stance of staying in
opposition after its general-election debacle.
"I strongly uphold the clear position of the Democratic
Party, and I say to those thinking of dividing us that this
scenario will never exist," Martina said on Facebook.
He said the PD would continue to follow President Sergio
Mattarella's efforts to form a government, starting from the
three proposals he made earlier this week, on poverty, families
and work.
Mattarella has decided to take two days to reflect after
Senate Speaker Maria Elisabetta Casellati reported back to him
on Friday following her exploratory mandate to seek to break
Italy's post-election political deadlock.
Casellati said she had detected "starting points on which
Mattarella will decide" during talks with political parties.
Her 'exploratory' mandate involved verifying the possibility
of forming a government made up of the centre right, the
coalition that came first in last month's inconclusive general
election, and the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S), the
biggest single party in the new parliament.
On Thursday that M5S reiterated that it was against forming a
government with the centre right as a whole and was only willing
to hold talks with the League, not with its alliance partners,
Forza Italia and the nationalist Brothers of Italy (FdI)
But it also said it would not consider external support of a
M5S-League government from FI and FdI to be "hostile".
Berlusconi has ruled this out, however.
M5S Senate Speaker Danilo Toninelli said Friday that it would
be better to have new elections if it is impossible to reach an
agreement for a stable government.
"We are giving our all to give the Italian people a
government that improves their lives," Toninelli said via
Twitter.
"We remain the same as before: intransigent and bound to our
principles, coherence first and foremost.
"We are not interested in a government that scrapes by.
"At that point it is better to have a new election".
Casellati said: "Over the last few days I performed the
mandate entrusted to me with dedication, trying to favour
constructive dialogue between the political parties capable of
producing a parliamentary majority with the perimeter indicated
by Mattarella".
The president may now hand another exploratory mandate to the
House Speaker, Roberto Fico of the M5S, pundits said.
Also on Friday, media magnate Berlusconi said the M5S would
only have got jobs at his Mediaset empire "cleaning the loos"
and the M5S retorted that it was better to make an honest wage
cleaning toilets than by "doing deals with the Mafia".
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