League calls on Italians to back coalition deal with 5-Star

MILAN: The far-right League gave Italians a chance to bless the programme it has drawn up with the 5-Star Movement in an informal ballot as the two groups try to decide on a candidate to lead their planned coalition government.

The government “contract” between the League and the antiestablishment 5-Star, the two parties that won the most votes in the March 4 national election, was published on Friday after 11 weeks of political stalemate in the euro zone’s third-largest economy.

The document calls for billions of euros in tax cuts, increased welfare payments for the poor, and the scrapping of a unpopular pension reform. It is seen by the two parties as the basis for governing for the full five-year legislative term but got a cool reception from the market and politicians elsewhere in Europe.

Unlike an online vote on Friday by supporters of 5-Star, the League set up 1,000 stands across the country over the weekend, with paper ballots listing 10 of the contract’s main points.

“Citizens appreciate when politicians give them a possibility to express their opinion, especially when people have lost their patience and want results,” said Gianluca Boari, a town councillor and volunteer at one of the stands in Milan.

The ballot is however seen as symbolic and unlikely to upset the delicate political balance between parties that had been seen as unlikely allies.

The decision by the two maverick groups to join forces has upset some of their voters but others say they see this as the only solution for the country.

“I don’t like it at all, (League leader Matteo) Salvini should have said ‘No’. What is this? It’s a terrible compromise for the League,” Veneranda Lorenti, a League supporter, said.

More than 90 per cent of almost 45,000 members of 5-Star voted in favour of the programme on Friday. Salvini and 5-Star leader Luigi Di Maio said the weekend would be decisive to finalise talks over a candidate for prime minister and to outline the ministers of a future government.

Full story @ timesofoman.com/world