League's votes for president 'decisive'

(ANSA) - Milan, January 26 - Northern League chief Matteo Salvini told ANSA on Monday his party's votes to elect a new Italian president will be "decisive". This is an apparent about-face from the party's prior critical stance towards the process of designating a candidate to succeed ex-president Giorgio Napolitano, who stepped down almost two years into his second seven-year term earlier this month.
    The party has changed its tune due to disarray within the ranks of its opponents - center-left Premier Matteo Renzi's Democratic Party (PD) and ex center-right premier Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia (FI).
    "The signals coming from both the PD and FI is that they are anything but united," Salvini said.
    "Therefore our 38 votes will be critical," said the leader of the center-right party and erstwhile Berlusconi government coalition ally. "We will certainly not stand by and watch. This matter is too important". The anti-euro, anti-immigrant and regionalist party "plans to be here and to grow in the next seven years, so it's important for (us) to play a key role in this election," Salvini said.