Italy faced a government crisis Thursday as Interior Minister Matteo Salvini of the right-wing League party called for a new election, saying his party’s coalition with the populist 5-Star Movement had collapsed over policy differences.
Salvini urged Italy’s premier to verify whether the coalition still had a governing majority in parliament.
The ruling two parties have been at odds recently over a host of policy issues but tensions spiraled Wednesday after the Senate rejected a move by the 5-Stars to kill a EU-funded high-speed rail link with neighboring France. The massive infrastructure project known in Italy as TAV was backed by the League and sought to improve rail links across several European nations.
As tones hardened, Salvini met with Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte on Thursday. After the meeting, Salvini issued a statement saying the TAV vote clearly showed that the ruling coalition had collapsed and called for a speedy election.
“Let’s go immediately to the Parliament and verify that there is no longer a majority, as was evident in the vote on the TAV, and quickly return the word to voters,” Salvini said.
Conte was expected to seek a confidence vote in Parliament and if the government lost, that would set the stage for a new election.
It was unclear when that might happen, as parliament has adjourned for its summer break and would need to be recalled. In the case of a no-confidence vote, it is up to Italy’s president to call a new election.
'5-Star party ready for election'
The 5-Star leader, Luigi Di Maio, responded to Salvini’s statement by saying his populist party was ready to go to a new election. But he sought to put it off, saying an election should not happen until after parliament gave its final approval to a reform reducing the number of lawmakers, a vote scheduled for early September.
Earlier Thursday, the right-wing League issued a statement complaining of deadlock with the 5-Star Movement on a variety of issues, saying “it is useless to go on” adding that “the only alternative to this government” is for a new election.
The high-speed train vote laid bare the deep divisions in the Italy’s 14 ½-month-old government, with the 5-Stars opposing the rail link as costly and unnecessary and the League supporting it as necessary for the economy and its core base of northern entrepreneurs.
After the vote, Salvini told supporters in the coastal town of Sabaudia “that something broke in the last months” in the governing coalition.
Besides the high-speed rail-link, the League listed other areas of contention between the two parties, including fiscal policies, energy, justice reform, regional autonomy and relations with Europe.
In his comments Wednesday, Salvini noted that the 5-Star’s pet electoral promise, basic income, which the government passed, was a handout that did not create jobs.
Salvini is coming off another victory this week with the passage of a new security law that fines humanitarian rescue ships up to 1 million euros ($1.1 million) if they enter Italian waters with migrants. Preventing such ships from docking has been Salvini’s main goal as interior minister.
(AP)
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