Italian coalition leaders keep sniping even after PM ultimatum

ROME (REUTERS),4 JUNE,2019 -

Italy’s coalition leaders professed loyalty to the government on Tuesday after Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte threatened to quit if they did not stop feuding, but the two ruling parties kept up their mutual recriminations.

Conte told reporters on Monday he would resign unless the right-wing League and anti-establishment 5-Star Movement did not put aside their many differences and resume work on enacting an agreed policy programme. Both League leader Matteo Salvini and his 5-Star counterpart Luigi Di Maio said on Tuesday they wanted to continue working together. However, underscoring the deep-seat rancour, a 5-Star minister accused the League of plotting to collapse the year-old government, while Salvini set an ultimatum of his own.

“If I realise after a couple of weeks that we are still saying the same things, with the same delays and the same postponements, then we would have a problem,” Salvini, who serves as deputy prime minister, told RTL radio.