(ANSA) - Rome, August 16 - 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 anti-establishment 5-Star Movement
(M5S), M5S leader Luigi Di Maio said.
Citing persistent divisions over a high-speed rail link with
France, Salvini's League filed a no confidence motion in Premier
Giuseppe 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.
PD House Whip Graziano Delrio said Friday a German-style
government contract was needed if the two parties were to team
up in government.
'Salvini sorry but damage is done'
League leader pulled plug due to high poll rating says M5S chief