(ANSA) - ROME, JAN 11 - Premier Giuseppe Conte on Monday answered a question on the possibility of a government crisis sparked by the centrist Italia Viva (IV) party by saying "we are working to build" and a crisis was the last thing Italy needed in the middle of the COVID emergency.
IV leader and ex-premier Matteo Renzi has been chiding Conte for weeks over the government's Recovery Plan to use over 200 billion euros of EU grants and loans to recover from the COVID crisis.
Conte said Monday a cabinet meeting Tuesday evening would be called on to approve the latest version of the Plan, which he hopes will persuade Renzi to drop his threat to bring down the government over the alleged misuse of the funds.
"We are working to build, the moment is so difficult that we must do our utmost to offer responses to the citizens," said Conte.
He said "we must run" on the Recovery Plan.
Conte added that an upsurge in COVID cases was on the way.
"It's not easy, and tough sacrifices will still be needed," said the premier.
Earlier Renzi warned Conte against trying to end tension within the coalition supporting his government via a showdown in a parliamentary vote.
Renzi has repeatedly threatened to pull IV party out of the governing alliance due to disagreements about how the executive intends to spend the 209 billion euros Italy will get in grants and low-interest loans from the EU Recovery Fund, if its plan is approved.
Renzi has said the government's Recovery Plan lacks ambition.
"If Conte and (aide Rocco) Casalino want a count (of votes) on the floor (of parliament), then I only hope that they have done their sums right," Renzi told RTL 102.5 radio.
However, Andrea Orlando of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) countered that it would not be possible to have a new government supported by the same coalition under a different premier and suggested that early elections would be needed if the executive collapses.
The ruling alliance also features the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) and the left-wing LeU group.
"We don't think it is possible to go outside this ruling majority and the point of equilibrium of this majority is Conte," Orlando told State broadcaster RAI.
"If you go beyond Conte, you also go beyond this majority and we can't make deals with (right-wing League leader Matteo) Salvini and (Brothers of Italy (FDI) leader Giorgia) Meloni".
PD Senate Whip Andrea Marcucci said the government did not have the numbers required to keep it afloat in the Senate without IV, and said the door was always open for Senators from the breakaway group to return to the PD.
Marcucci said "Renzi should listen more, I'm thinking of giving him ear-phones", but also said he was confident that IV will approve the new version of the Recovery Plan on Tuesday night.
One of IV's two ministers, Equal Opportunities Minister Elena Bonetti, said she was still waiting for Conte to "show responsibility and give us the answers we want".
The other IV minister, farm chief Teresa Bellanova, has been as outspoken as Renzi in warning of a government crisis unless Conte accedes to IV's demands. On Monday she reiterated she would quit unless IV gets the answers it requires over not only the Recovery Plan but also the government agenda for the remainder of the parliamentary term in 2023.
(ANSA).