ROME, May 15 — Italy’s anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and far-right League faced stark differences over both policies and personalities today as they held a sixth day of talks to create a coalition government.
More than 10 weeks after inconclusive elections, the two political rivals had been expected to tell President Sergio Mattarella yesterday that they had a government deal and to reveal the identity of their pick for prime minister.
Instead, they asked for more time to hammer out an accord, which is expected to include promises of tax cuts, increased welfare handouts and a roll back of an unpopular pension reform — measures that could run foul of European budget rules.
“Where there is a bit of disagreement is whether we should be more or less aggressive over the economic numbers and our ambitions,” said Claudio Borghi, the League’s economics chief, who has taken part in the negotiations with 5-Star.
However, three sources within 5-Star, which was founded in 2009 and has no experience of national government, said the main stumbling point remained who should head the administration.
League leader Matteo Salvini and 5-Star chief Luigi Di Maio have both agreed to drop their own ambitions to be prime minister and are looking for a candidate from outside their parties to head the government and enact their programme.
In a meeting with Mattarella yesterday, 5-Star proposed little-known law professor Giuseppe Conte. The League has not yet given its go-ahead and a source in the president’s office said it appeared his candidacy was provisional.
“A non-political prime minister poses some problems because they would find themselves with a programme that has been written by other people,” said a 5-Star source, adding that Di Maio had not yet lost hope that he might take charge.
One more week
The source in the president’s office said the head of state had given the parties until next week to decide. The League plans to hold an informal referendum in city squares across Italy this weekend on any eventual deal, which anyone can vote in, while 5-Star plans an online ballot for its members.
5-Star won 32.6 per cent of the vote in the March 4 election, while the League, which is part of a centre-right alliance, took 17.3 per cent. Since then, support for 5-Star has remained stable in opinion polls, but backing for the League has leapt to as much as 25 per cent.
Fresh elections in the autumn would probably be almost inevitable if this latest attempt to form a government fails.
With difficult decisions to be taken, the League revived some of its campaign rhetoric, taking aim at European Union budget restraints which impose de facto limits on how much a government can spend to kick-start its economy.
“We don’t want to be in a government that takes orders from Europe ... We don’t want to be in a government that is similar to the ones we had over the past five years,” said the League’s Gian Marco Centinaio, one of Salvini’s closest advisors.
The League wants to raise Italy’s budget deficit to 3 per cent of gross domestic product next year — the ceiling set by the EU — from a projected 0.8 per cent, while 5-Star has said it wants a 1.5 per cent deficit target.
Valdis Dombrovskis, the vice president of the European Commission, warned today that Italy should maintain its commitment to gradually reduce the public deficit and debt.
“It’s very clear that in current times of economic growth Italy needs to put its debt on a downwards trajectory,” he said in an event organised by Politico in Brussels. — Reuters
