M5S delegation meets Mattarella

(see related) (ANSA) - Rome, April 20 - Michele Dall'Orco and Nunzia Catalfo, the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement's House and Senate whips, said Wednesday that President Sergio Mattarella saw corruption as a national problem after meeting the head of State at the Quirinal palace. They also said Mattarella viewed Denis Verdini's small Liberal Popular Alliance - Autonomies (ALA) group, as an addition to the ruling coalition rather than an integral part of it. The meeting came a day after Premier Matteo Renzi's government survived two no-confidence motions filed on the wake of a oil probe in the southern region of Basilicata with the help of ALA. "Obviously Mattarella respects the judiciary and he recognised that one of Italy's main problems is corruption," said Dall'Orco and Catalfo. "For Mattarella, ALA and Verdini are additional to the majority not a substitute (to a part of it). The head of State said that if it were to become a substitute, he would intervene in some way".