Vote MP cut then straight to elections

(ANSA) - Rome, August 13 - League leader Matteo Salvini said Tuesday that parliament should vote to cut parliamentary numbers next week and then move straight to a snap election to be held in the autumn.
    Salvini, who pulled the plug on a 14-month alliance with the 5-Star Movement (M5S) last week, said ahead of a Senate vote on tabling the League's no confidence vote in Premier Giuseppe Conte that "Italy wants to have certainties and what is more beautiful, democratic, transparent, linear, dignified than giving the word to the people. "What is more beautiful. I don't understand the fear, the terror, the desperation," he said amid protests from the centre-left opposition Democratic Party (PD).
    Salvini said parliament should first vote to cut 345 MPs and Senators and then Italy should go to the polls "immediately".
    The League leader said the MP cut should be voted on next week and then an election should be called, spelling elections this autumn.
    "Elections immediately for dignity, honesty and coherence," he said.
    He said former PD leader and ex-premier Matteo Renzi was afraid of a snap vote "because of the disasters he made" while premier.
    Salvini accused those who wanted to extend the legislative term by a deal between the PD and his former ally the M5S, and not call a snap election, of being antidemocratic and fascist, a charge frequently levelled at the League.
    He said the M5S should "think three times before allying with the PD".
    "We go with out heads held high to ask Italians for the chance to take this county by the hand for the next five years and we are not afraid of leaving our seats," he said.