Premier Giuseppe Conte on
Thursday dismissed speculation that his administration could be
replaced by a government of national unity to face the
coronavirus emergency featuring Matteo Salvini's right-wing
League party.
"We are already in a united government," Conte said.
Salvini has been highly critical of the government's handling
of the coronavirus emergency.
When asked about the League being in a national unity
government on Thursday, Salvini said that the party was "in
favour of accompanying the country out of the quagmire, in order
to accompany it to elections.
"This government team is not fit to handle normality, never
mind an emergency," added Salvini, who was interior minister and
deputy premier in the first Conte government before he pulled
the plug on it last year and prompted the premier to put
together a new governing coalition.
According to some reports, the Italia Viva (IV) party of
ex-premier Matteo Renzi, who has clashed with Conte over justice
reforms recently, was inclined to consider the idea of the
national unity government.
But Renzi, whose party is part of the ruling coalition, said
these reports were nothing more than gossip on Thursday.
Several members of the ruling centre-left Democratic Party
(PD) ruled out the idea of being allied with Salvini.
The PD is in government with the anti-establishment 5-Star
Movement (M5S), the senior partner; IV; and the small leftwing
Free and Equal (LeU) party.
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