German-style PD-M5S govt accord needed

(ANSA) - Rome, August 16 - A German-style government accord is needed between the centre-left opposition Democratic Party and the ruling anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) for a new government after the far-right League pulled the plug on its alliance with the M5S sparking a government crisis, PD House Whip Graziano Delrio said Friday.
    "What is needed is a German-style accord, like that between the CDU and the SPD, something written down," said Delrio, former PD chairman.
    "We sit down, we negotiate, we analyse point by point for the good of the country, calling on the best minds, to give a different approach.
    "This country has thus far been obsessed by issues that have not brought anything good, like immigration.
    "I'm glad that (Premier Giuseppe) Conte has recognised this".
    Anti-migrant Euroskeptic League leader Matteo Salvini is "sorry but the damage is done" after pulling the plug on Italy's first all-populist government over policy differences with the M5S, M5S leader Luigi Di Maio said Sunday night.
    Citing persistent divisions over a high-speed rail link with France, Salvini's League filed a no confidence motion in Premier Conte on August 9, effectively ending the 14-month alliance with the M5S.
    Di Maio reiterated that Salvini had done so because the League was riding high in the opinion polls with 38%, compared to 17% in the March 2018 general election, whereas the M5S's support has slipped from 33% to 16%.
    Di Maio said the M5S, the biggest parliamentary group, would vote against the no confidence motion in Conte on August 20, spelling its probable failure since the second-biggest group, the centre-left opposition Democratic Party (PD), is also expected to vote against it.
    That would leave President Sergio Mattarella, the arbiter of the government crisis, in a quandary.
    He may try to appoint a PD-M5S caretaker government if those parties can iron out their own apparently irreconcilable policy differences.