Centre-left Democratic Party
(PD) leader has clashed with the leader of his government
partner, the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S), over
introducing a 'ius soli' (law of the soil) citizenship law for
immigrant children.
At a PD national rally at the weekend Zingaretti said the
progressive party must get behind moves to introduce ius soli
or, as an alternative, 'ius culturae', granting citizenship when
immigrant kids have completed five years of schooling in Italy.
But M5S leader and Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, who
endorsed the tough migrant and security laws of former partner,
League leader and ex-interior minister Matto Salvini in the last
government, dismissed the idea.
"Half of the country is under water and some people thinking
of 'ius soli', can you believe it?" he said.
With the M5S spiralling downwards in the polls Di Maio is
loth to disown the anti-migrant moves of Salvini, with whom he
formed the first alliance backing Premier Giuseppe Conte.
A second alliance, between the PD and the M5S, was formed
after salvini brought down the first one hoping to cash in on
high polling numbers in August.
The new M5S-PD government has been dogged by constant
bickering which has sparked speculation about how long it will
last.
The speculation surged again Sunday after the uis soli clash.
But Di Maio played down the row on Monday, saying the
government was "working well on concrete issues".
"We are working well on concrete points like the budget, we
have kept our promise not to raise VAT, we've removed the
'superticket' (health care surcharge), we are raising net
take-home pay a little.
"When it's a matter of tackling concrete issues the
government takes action and the parliamentary caucuses are also
working well together".
Di Maio also denied supporting Salvini policies, saying he
had "ended things" with the former interior minister when he
pulled the plug on the Cone 1 government.
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