Friday 26 / April / 2024
Rome: Italian right-wing leader Matteo Salvini rejected the idea of governing with the weakened centre-left Democratic Party (PD) on Monday, hours after his main ally, former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, called for the PD's support.
A March 4 election ended in stalemate, with an alliance of conservative parties falling 49 seats short of a majority in the lower house of parliament.
The largest single party, the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, was 95 seats adrift. Either group could govern if they won the backing of the centre-left bloc, dominated by the PD, which took 112 seats in the 630-seat lower house.
The PD could also provide both camps with a majority in the upper house Senate. Salvini, whose anti-immigrant League party surpassed Berlusconi's Forza Italia (Go Italy!) at the election, spurned the idea of working with former PD leader Matteo Renzi, who resigned after the vote, or current premier Paolo Gentiloni.
"The Italians did not vote for us to bring Renzi back to government. Do you think a League voter wants Gentiloni in power?" Salvini told reporters after a party meeting in Milan.
Renzi, still the most high-profile PD figure, has said the party would head into opposition and has ruled out hooking up with either the rightist bloc or 5-Star, but it remains to be seen if the rest of the PD will his bidding.
"We are looking at alliances not on the basis of numbers (of seats) but of our programme," Salvini said. His statements contrasted with an appeal Berlusconi made to the PD in Monday's Stampa newspaper, asking for its help to form a government and avoid a swift return to the polls.
The former premier, who cannot run for office due to a 2013 tax fraud conviction, said the election result meant he and his rightwing allies had "the right, and above all the duty, to lead the next government", and he called on the PD to show a sense of responsibility.
"Nobody ... can ignore the country's need to be governed," he said, adding it would be much better to take "a few weeks" to put together a coalition rather than rush to a new election.
Forza Italia's relegation to second place within the alliance was the first such defeat for Berlusconi in all his 25 years in politics, and weakened the position he had carved out as a moderate guarantor who could keep his allies in check.
Centre-left politicians have suggested the League, now the second-biggest party in parliament, should break ranks with its conservative allies and join forces with the 5-Star. "I categorically rule this out," Berlusconi said.
"I trust Salvini's loyalty and his political intelligence. I cannot see how a party in our coalition could imagine cooperating with a 5-Star government." While the right and the 5-Star jostle for position to form the next government, senior PD members met on Monday to plot a new course after their election rout.
The party's deputy chief, Maurizio Martina, now in charge as a caretaker, supported Renzi's position that the party should go into opposition and challenged 5-Star and the League to try to form a government together.
Meanwhile, Italian media speculation is growing that the only way out of the parliamentary deadlock maybe a "national unity" government backed by all the main parties. The new parliament sits for the first time on March 23.
One of its first duties will be to elect presidents for the two chambers, which will give a first glimpse of party dynamics within the legislature. Salvini indicated at the weekend that the League should lead one house and the 5-Star the other. However, looking to forge ties with the centre-left, Forza Italia suggested the conservatives should back a PD candidate in one of the chambers.
