Speaker talks start from scratch

(ANSA) - Rome, March 22 - Talks on parliamentary Speakers had to start from scratch Thursday after he centre right said it was sticking with former Forza Italia (FI) Senate Whip Paolo Romani as its candidate for Senate Speaker despite a veto from the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S), the other big winner in the March 4 general election. The decision was taken by FI leader Silvio Berlusconi at an ongoing summit in Rome with anti-migrant Euroskeptic League leader Matteo Salvini, the centre right's premier candidate, and the other main ally, rightist nationalist Brothers of Italy (FdI) leader Giorgia Meloni.
    The centre right and the M5S appeared to have sealed a deal to hand the Senate Speakership to the former and the House post to the latter.
    But FI heavyweight Romani, 70, is opposed by the M5S because of a probe into his allegedly illicit use of a municipal cellphone in the northern city of Monza.
    The centre right, which got 37% of the vote on march 4 compared to the M5S's 32%, has enough votes in the Senate to vote in Romani on its own in the final ballot, political experts say.
    M5S leader Luigi Di Maio repeated that Romani, for them, is "unvotable".
    Asked therefore if the deal with the M5S was off, Salvini said "it certainly looks that way" and voiced the hope the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), reeling from an election debacle, would come to the table. PD caretaker leader Maurizio Martina said the model being used by the centre right and the M5S was mistaken and they should start from scratch, involving everyone, the Speakers ideally being "the patrimony of all".
    PD former Lower House Whip Ettore Rosato said the PD would not vote for Romani. "We won't vote for Romani. We have no intention of voting for Romani," he said on TV show Porta a Porta.
    "Then, if we're asked for an assessment (of him), we say that he has been an opposition Whip who has always had serious and respectful conduct." The House Whips will meet in the M5S offices at 20:00 Thursday, the M5S said, to discuss the House Speakership.