Northern League chief Matteo
Salvini told ANSA on Monday his party's votes to elect a new
Italian president will be "decisive".
This is an apparent about-face from the party's prior
critical stance towards the process of designating a candidate
to succeed ex-president Giorgio Napolitano, who stepped down
almost two years into his second seven-year term earlier this
month.
The party has changed its tune due to disarray within the
ranks of its opponents - center-left Premier Matteo Renzi's
Democratic Party (PD) and ex center-right premier Silvio
Berlusconi's Forza Italia (FI).
"The signals coming from both the PD and FI is that they are
anything but united," Salvini said.
"Therefore our 38 votes will be critical," said the leader
of the center-right party and erstwhile Berlusconi government
coalition ally.
"We will certainly not stand by and watch. This matter is
too important".
The anti-euro, anti-immigrant and regionalist party "plans
to be here and to grow in the next seven years, so it's
important for (us) to play a key role in this election," Salvini
said.
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