Salvini: I am the only contender
THE leader of Italy’s farright League said on Tuesday he was the only possible candidate for prime minister for the centre-right after his party emerged as the strongest in the conservative bloc at Sunday’s election.
The vote produced a hung parliament and talks to form a government will take weeks and possibly months. The League and the antiestablishment Five-Star Movement both say the president should name their own leaders as prime minister.
The League’s chief Matteo Salvini replied “no” when asked by reporters in Milan if he would be willing to make way for a candidate who may be able to garner more support in parliament.
The anti-immigrant League won around 17 per cent of the vote at the election, upsetting expectations by coming in ahead of Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia (Go Italy!) party, on 14 per cent. The centre-right coalition, which includes other smaller parties, took around 37 per cent in total.
That made it the biggest group in parliament, but left it short of an absolute majority, meaning it will need the backing of other parties to govern.
The biggest loser at the election was the ruling centre-left Democratic Party (PD), whose leader Matteo Renzi said on Monday he would resign once a new government has been formed.
Mr Renzi added that the PD would go into opposition and not participate in any government with the League or Five-Star, but he has since been criticised by several senior PD figures for trying to dictate the future course of the party.
Claudio Borghi, the League’s economics chief, said he thought the most probable government would be a tie-up between Five-Star and the PD, but he hoped the centre-right and Five-Star could govern together instead.
“What I would prefer for my country would be the centre-right and Five-Star because I think we could find common ground,” he said. Five-Star, which has already presented its would-be cabinet team, was by far the largest single party, winning 32 per cent of the vote, and its leader Luigi Di Maio is looking for potential partners in parliament for a government led by Five-Star.
The centre-right fell some 50 seats short of a majority, and Mr Salvini said the coalition would appeal to individual parliamentarians elected with other parties to make up the gap by switching sides to join the conservatives’ ranks.
The parties are already feeling each other out over the scope for alliances, but formal consultations with President Sergio Mattarella will not begin until after March 23 when parliament convenes to elect the presidents of the two chambers.
In his comments, Mr Borghi also ruled out the possibility that the League would break ranks with Mr Berlusconi to join a government with Five-Star. Mr Berlusconi himself is barred from becoming prime minister again due to a conviction for tax fraud.
The Five-Star’s Mr Di Maio, 31, who was elected leader in September, has shifted the party towards the mainstream, rowing back on previously Eurosceptic positions to reassure investors and Italy’s partners about its intentions.