Italian president faces impeachment call
ROME (AFP) — Italy was plunged into fresh political chaos as the president prepared yesterday to appoint a pro-austerity economist as leader after a bid by two populist parties to form a government collapsed.
The crisis was sparked when Italian President Sergio Mattarella vetoed the nomination of fierce eurosceptic Paolo Savona as economy minister, enraging the far-right League and leading to the anti-establishment Five Star Movement calling for his impeachment.
The decision led to prime ministerelect Giuseppe Conte stepping aside, exacerbating the political turmoil nearly three months after March’s inconclusive general election.
Mattarella said he had accepted every proposed minister except Savona, who has called the euro a “German cage” and has said that Italy needs a plan to leave the single currency “if necessary.”
The leaders of Five Star and the League, Luigi Di Maio and Matteo Salvini, furiously denounced the veto, decrying what they called meddling by Germany, debt ratings agencies and financial lobbies.
Mattarella has summoned Carlo Cottarelli, an economist formerly with the International Monetary Fund, for talks at 0930 GMT, with a temporary technocrat government on the table as Italy faces the strong possibility of new elections in the autumn.
Cottarelli, 64, was director of the IMF’s fiscal affairs department from 2008 to 2013 and became known as “Mr Scissors” for making cuts to public spending in Italy.
But he will struggle to gain the approval of parliament with Five Star and the League commanding a majority in both houses.
“They’ve replaced a government with a majority with one that won’t obtain one,” said Di Maio.
A livid Di Maio later called for the president to be impeached.
“I hope that we can give the floor to Italians as soon as possible, but first we need to clear things up. First the impeachment of Mattarella... then to the polls.”
“Why don’t we just say that in this country it’s pointless that we vote, as the ratings agencies, financial lobbies decide the governments,” Di Maio added.
Salvini, who was Savona’s biggest advocate and a fellow eurosceptic, declared that Italy was not a “colony,” and that “we won’t have Germany tell us what to do.”
Yesterday, Salvini threatened to break his alliance with pre-election right-wing coalition partner Silvio Berlusconi should the media mogul’s Forza Italia party vote for the government.
The 81-year-old billionaire former prime minister released a statement on Sunday in which he praised Mattarella’s efforts to “safeguard this country’s families and businesses.