Right-wing opposition led by Salvini calls for new polls

In a demonstration with several thousand participants, leading politicians from the right-wing opposition called for early elections in Italy.

“Today, the team that will rule Italy in the years to come is on this square,” the head of the far-right Northern League party and ex-interior minister

Matteo Salvini said at the rally in the central Piazza del Popolo in Rome yesterday.

The right-wing alliance of three parties said the government of Giuseppe Conte had promised a lot curing the virus crisis and had done little.

Many Italians would continue to have to wait for the pledged assistance from the government, they said.

Salvini’s Northern League, which left Conte’s first government almost a year ago, demonstrated together with supporters from two other parties: the right-wing conservative Forza Italia and the ultra-right Fratelli d’Italia.

Fratelli boss Giorgia Meloni said that the government lacked vision.

Several speakers, including Forza Italia MEP Antonio Tajani, rejected media reports that the opposition parties themselves were at odds.

There is speculation that exprime minister Silvio Berlusconi of Forza Italia could imagine forming a government with other parties, for example with the Social Democrats (PD), currently in the ruling coalition.

Since September 2019, the independent Conte has led a coalition that is dominated by the 5-Star Movement (M5S) and the PD.

For the rally, the organisers had set up around 4,000 chairs on the square spaced out to conform with coronavirus distancing regulations.

The opposition has repeatedly called for new elections in the past few weeks, for example parallel to the planned regional elections in several Italian regions in September.

Italy has been particularly hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic in Europe and has officially counted around 35,000 dead so far.