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I'll only continue if whole coalition is behind me - Conte

Renzi has threatened to pull the plug on govt

Redazione Ansa

(ANSA) - ROME, DEC 11 - Premier Giuseppe Conte said Friday that he will only stay on if he has the support of all of the parties that form the governing coalition.
    He was speaking after ex-premier Matteo Renzi threatened to pull the plug on the executive by withdrawing the support of his centrist Italia Viva (IV) party.
    "I have the full responsibility of this position and and awareness of it," Conte told a press conference in Brussels at the end of the EU summit.
    "I am fully aware of the fact that I'll keep going (only) with the confidence of each party in the ruling majority and all of the parties combined.
    "There has been criticism and we will have talks. It is our duty to talk with Italia Viva and the others," he added when asked if Italy may have early elections in 2021.
    "We need determination and trust to be able to keep going. The challenges are too big to face them in a different way".
    There has been tension bubbling up within the ruling alliance for some time.
    Renzi has been calling on Conte to drop the idea of forming a task-force on the use of the money Italy will get from the EU Recovery Fund, arguing there is a risk of parliament being sidelined.
    "If Conte wants full powers like Salvini, then I say no," Renzi told Spnaish daily El Pais, referring to a famous comment made by League leader and former interior minister Matteo Salvini.
    When asked if he would be willing to pull the plug on the government if Conte did not make a U-turn, Renzi replied: "Yes because it is not a problem of positions, which they have offered me... the mechanism of the debate about the institutional rules cannot be compensated by a little deal".
    (ANSA).
   

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