Italy enters a new period of uncertainty, after the end of the coalition between the League and the Movement 5 Stars (M5S). The political class will march from Wednesday, August 21 to the Quirinal Palace, official residence of President Sergio Mattarella, where various formations will propose the formation of a new government.
The president, who in the Italian parliamentary system holds the keys to the resolution of the crisis, will begin his traditional "consultations" at 4 pm with a phone call to his predecessor, Giorgio Napolitano.
He will then receive, over two days, the presidents of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies then all the parliamentary groups, ending Thursday by the most important numerically, that of the M5S, strong of his victory in the elections of 2018 with more than 32% voices.
"The royal way"
Because, no matter if today the head of the League, Matteo Salvini, represents theoretically in the polls 36 to 38% of the votes and the M5S only 15 or 16%. In Parliament, its seats are worth only the 17% collected at the time.
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Called "irresponsible" and "opportunistic" on Tuesday in the Senate by outgoing Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, Matteo Salvini has maintained his line: he will ask the president "the royal way" of the return to the polls because "in democracy the thing the more beautiful is to vote ".
The leader of the far-right party plunged Italy into crisis on August 8 by breaking, without warning, a mismatched marriage concluded 14 months earlier with the M5S, which he accused of systematically opposing its economic projects, and by calling for immediate elections.
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President Mattarella has a series of options, including, as a last resort, if no majority emerges, that of an advance poll. But he is notoriously reluctant to this idea because it would be organized in the autumn, when the country, heavily indebted and at a standstill, will have to submit to the European Commission its draft budget for 2020.
"Open a new page"
He will listen to each other's proposals and then make a decision, perhaps not before Friday. In the meantime, the Democratic Party has indicated through its former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi that it intends to deepen its idea of an alliance with the M5S, to form an "institutional" government, which could be led again by Giuseppe Conte.
"I hope that with the defeat of Salvini, we will be able to open a new page for Italy," said Matteo Renzi, interviewed by AFP. "The agreement between the M5S and the PD can be a solution", despite the strong enmity of the past, because "the most important is the financial security of Italy," he said.
Problem: There is no consensus within the PD as party leader Nicola Zingaretti is more reluctant than Matteo Renzi. He reminded Giuseppe Conte that in recent months, he has accepted the security crackdown on migrants and the NGOs that help them, led by Matteo Salvini. The Democratic Party will meet its staff Wednesday from 11 am.
Towards a "Ursula government"?
Another hypothesis proposed by the former Prime Minister and former President of the European Commission Romano Prodi, a broad coalition left-right to the German, resolutely pro-European, he called the "Ursula government". Again, no certainty about such an alliance, which would include Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party.
Former President of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani, close to Silvio Berlusconi, considered it "impossible", in an interview with AFP, preferring a union of the right behind "the same liberal vision".
For his part, Matteo Salvini had already proposed an alliance to Silvio Berlusconi and the ultra-right formation of the Brothers of Italy, thus gathering more than 50% of the voting intentions, and therefore an overwhelming and unprecedented majority. But the operation had aborted because the former president of the Council wanted a single list and Silvio Berlusconi feared a disappearance of Forza Italia.
With AFP