Italy renews bid to form govt and end deadlock
Parties trying to find ‘ compromise’ economy ministry
Italy searched for a lastminute exit from almost three months of political turmoil on Wednesday, with its biggest party looking to make a renewed attempt to form a coalition government with the rightwing League.
The two anti- establishment parties, the 5- Star Movement and League, had abandoned plans to jointly take power at the weekend after the President blocked their proposed Cabinet lineup.
President Sergio Mattarella’s veto of 81- yearold eurosceptic Paolo Savona as economy minister appeared to tip the country back towards repeat elections and triggered a dramatic speculative attack on Italian financial markets.
The parties are now trying to find “a point of compromise on another name” for the economy ministry, said the source close to 5Star, the single- biggest party in the new Parliament.
The sense that a resolution of the stalemate might be at hand came from Prime Minister- designate Carlo Cottarelli, who was tasked by the head of state this week to calm the turmoil and plan for repeat elections after the summer.
Italy’s League said that it would not block emergency solutions to end the political deadlock.
“New possibilities have emerged for the birth of a political government,” Mr Cottarelli was quoted as saying by ANSA news agency, implying that a government headed by politicians rather than technocrats like himself could be in the offing.
“These circumstances, also considering the market tensions, have caused me to wait for further developments.” However, League leader Matteo Salvini, who is surging in opinion polls, appeared to throw cold water on the notion that his party and 5- Star could try again to take power, saying Italy should return to an election as soon as possible.
“The earlier we vote the better because it’s the best way to get out of this quagmire and confusion,” Mr Salvini told reporters.
He did, however, appear open to an interim administration to govern for a few months, saying an election at the end of July would be “disruptive” for Italian seasonal workers.
He invited Mattarella to make the first move, to “explain to us how we can get out of this situation”. A League source said that the party would not block any quick political solution that would enable Italy to deal with possible “emergencies”.
Currently, Prime Minister-designate Cottarelli has no major parliamentary support for a stopgap government of technocrats.
Despite the softer tone from 5- Star and hopeful remarks from Cottarelli, a top adviser to Salvini said that the League was not prepared to abandon Savona, the sole obstacle to the League and 5- Star winning the President’s blessing for a coalition.
“If it wasn’t possible three days ago, then it’s hard to see why it would be now,” Giancarlo Giorgetti was quoted as saying to online news site Il Fatto Quotidiano. “It is difficult because ... the people who want to sort out problems affecting everyday citizens have their hands tied by stronger political forces,” Mauro Ciarpagnini, a retired Rome resident, who said the President should not have rejected Savona.