Disaster shows coalition fault line
ROME » The collapse of a 50-year-old highway bridge in northern Italy this week has highlighted the tensions running through the country’s populist coalition.
The anti-establishment Five Star Movement and the anti-immigrant League so far have managed to work together in government in areas where they disagreed during this year’s election campaign, such as limiting immigration, boosting benefits for poor Italians and simplifying the tax system.
When it comes to major infrastructure projects, cohabitation may prove more difficult.
How they resolve that conflict will shape foreign investors’ views of Italy and their willingness to sink money into the euro area’s third-largest economy.
Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio’s Five Star was born as an environmental movement and has opposed projects such as a high-speed train link to France and a highway bypass around Genoa, which would have diverted some traffic from the overpass that collapsed Tuesday, killing at least 38 people.
His fellow deputy premier, Matteo Salvini of the League, gets much of his backing from businesses in the north and is an enthusiastic supporter of expanding transport and energy links.
After Tuesday’s accident, Salvini pointed the finger at European Union restrictions, hinting they had prevented maintenance spending and contributed to the disaster. Di Maio focused his fire on the private operators of the highway, Atlantia’s Autostrade per l’Italia.
“There’s been a division of labor in how they responded to the Genoa tragedy, which just underscores the deep divisions that they are trying to paper over,” Carlo Alberto Carnevale Maffe, professor of business strategy at Milan’s Bocconi University, said in an interview.
The cracks widened a little Thursday when Di Maio vowed to revoke Autostrade’s concession without paying a penalty.
Salvini said rescue efforts should come first and suggested the government might go easier on Autostrade if it used its profits to pay victims and offer free tolls.
A phone call from market regulator Consob to the premier’s office warning against volatility and the costs of withdrawing the concession, reported by La Stampa Friday, may not help to bring the two sides any closer.