ROME: The populist parties negotiating a government coalition in Italy said on Friday they finalised an agreement, paving the way for a new administration to be sworn in as early as next week. The anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) and far-right League were thus close to ending a long post-election stalemate, but also to forming one of the most radical governments in Italy’s history.
“Today we have finally set in all its parts the contract for a government of change. I am really happy,” M5S leader Luigi Di Maio wrote on the party’s website.
League leader Matteo Salvini said it took “days and night of work” to clinch a deal, and urged his supporters to look at it while forgetting “the lies of newspapers and televisions.”
Highlights included personal and corporate income taxes reduced to two bands of 15 and 20 per cent and a “citizen’s income” for people under the poverty line of at least 780 euros.
The two policies were, respectively, the key campaign promises for the League and M5S. They also called for an end to Russia sanctions and pledged to detain and expel “all” irregular migrants.
The measures would be funded through “cuts in [public sector] waste, managing [public] debt and via an appropriate and limited recourse to [higher] deficit,” the two parties said.
The sustainability of M5S-League reforms is in doubt, as Italy has one of the highest public debts in the world. Some economists have estimated their cost at 100 billion euros per year.
While Italy’s European Union partners are likely to view the plans with some concern, Di Maio and Salvini urged their supporters to back them.
Both leaders said they would not move ahead with their alliance without an endorsement from their grassroots. But a positive response was expected.
M5S members were asked to approve the contract in an online vote from 10 am to 8 pm (0800-1800 GMT), while the League was due to organise informal voting stations in public places during the weekend.
— dpa
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