ROME: Italy’s two anti-establishment parties, the 5-Star Movement and the far-right League, are drafting a programme for a new government in the hope of ending almost 10 weeks of political stalemate, but are still seeking someone to lead it.
To address concerns that their pledges to raise welfare spending and cut taxes will undermine the economic stability of the heavily indebted country, 5-Star leader Luigi Di Maio said the administration would not be a threat to Europe.
Di Maio met with League leader Matteo Salvini for a second consecutive day, and afterward they signalled there had been progress on policy, but still offered no names for the top job.
Asked about the premiership, Salvini told reporters: “When we have something to say, we’ll say it.”
The two party leaders will meet again in Milan on Saturday, and a 5-Star source said the aim was to offer a candidate to President Sergio Mattarella on Sunday.
Vincenzo Spadafora, a close aide to Di Maio, said the two parties were looking for someone outside both parties who “has a high profile and is trusted by Italian citizens and Italy’s international partners”.
Di Maio insisted after the March 4 election that he should be the next prime minister, but dropped this demand last week to help clinch a deal with the League.
5-Star won 32 per cent of the vote, making it the largest party in parliament, while the League got 17 per cent to become the second-largest. Salvini said weeks ago he would not insist on leading any government his group was a part of.
The parties said meetings to agree a programme to cut taxes, hike welfare payments and bolster efforts to stop irregular immigration had made progress.
On Thursday, news that they were seeking to form a government pushed the gap between Italian benchmark bond yields and the safer German equivalent to its widest in seven weeks on concerns that the state accounts might take a hit.
“It’s being called a populist government. Some have said it’s a threat to the people,” Di Maio told reporters after meeting Salvini. “Some say it’s a threat to Europe... but it’s not Europe that’s under threat.”
The Italian-German bond spread narrowed on Friday, returning to where it was before 5-Star and the League began negotiations.
Though both parties have said they want to renegotiate the EU’s fiscal rules to allow Italy to spend more, a 5-Star source said that any plans to increase the budget deficit would be discussed with Brussels first.
“The government will be rational and reasonable (with the public accounts),” the source said.
— Reuters
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