Berlusconi confident Italy will return to Right-wing rule

SILVIO BERLUSCONI, the three-time former premier, said that Italy will see a return to a Right-wing coalition in government “in the not too distant future” as cracks begin to show in the current populist alliance.

The billionaire leader of the centreright party Forza Italia made the comments after hosting talks at his Rome palace home yesterday with Matteo Salvini, the anti-migrant League party leader and interior minister, and Giorgia Meloni, the leader of the far-right nationalist Brothers of Italy (FDI) party.

“My forecast is that in a not too distant future the centre Right will return to government and the leadership of the country for the good fortune of Italy and the Italians, who will emerge quite soon from the inebriation they have shown for the 5-Star Movement,” he said after the summit.

The three parties released a statement saying they would field single candidates representing their Right-wing alliance in all forthcoming 2019 regional elections, starting with Piedmont, Abruzzo, Basilicata and Sardinia.

While Mr Salvini refused to speculate on how long the current governing coalition might last, Mr Meloni said that the League was “realising that it is difficult to find an agreement” with the more Left-leaning 5-Star Movement.

The two sides are struggling to agree on budget priorities and a contentious immigration decree that would reform how migrants are accepted, processed and managed once they have entered Italy. Though the draft is still being tweaked by both sides, Mr Salvini is pressing for the cabinet to approve his ministry’s decree on migration and asylum on Monday.

Leaders of the 5-Star Movement are manoeuvring to change several contentious points of the decree, including the revocation of “humanitarian reasons” as one of the options for requesting stay permits. The plan also calls for millions more to be budgeted to pay for repatriations and greatly expands the scope of authorities’ ability to revoke citizenship, such as for threats to security, terrorism affiliation or committing other crimes.

“There’s been no setback, actually we are taking two steps forward,” Mr Salvini said when asked if the reforms had run into trouble.