• The portrait: The metamorphosis of Giuseppe Conte, the lawyer of the Italians
  • Political crisis: the Five Star Movement and the PD negotiate an alliance against Salvini

Negotiations between the Five Star Movement and the Democratic Party to form an alternative government that avoids calling early elections in Italy after the resignation of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte is complicated on account of the future tenant of Palacio Chigi. The PD demands a complete break with the previous government while the 'grillinos' want Conte to lead the new Executive.

After several preliminary meetings between representatives of both formations, on Friday night the leaders of the M5E and the PD, Luigi Di Maio and Nicola Zingaretti , met in Rome to officially begin negotiations between both parties. Although the two politicians were optimistic and willing to talk to find a way out of the political crisis, the demand for the name of the prime minister could be a difficult obstacle to overcome. The PD considers it essential to build a change cabinet that breaks with the previous one, while in the M5E they do not seem willing to waste the popularity that Conte has acquired in these 14 months and that have made him the politician best valued by the Italians, only behind the president of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella.

Zingaretti's refusal of a reissue of the Conte Government, which would in practice mean replacing the Ministers of the League with those of the PD, divides the center-left party. " We are convinced that, without ultimatum or vetoes, we will be able to give a government to the country," said PD Senator Andrea Marcucci. Former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, the main promoter of the dialogue with the M5E, although in the 2018 elections he opposed to agree with the 'grillinos', precipitating the final agreement between them and the League, he believes that within the party there is a current that wants to dynamit the negotiations before starting them.

Many of the co-religionists of the former Tuscan prime minister, however, doubt his intentions and point to Renzi's interest in avoiding the polls to continue maintaining control over the senators and deputies currently sitting in Parliament, whom he himself included in the electoral lists last year, before resigning as general secretary of the party.

In case the negotiations were not complicated enough, the League insists on reaching out to its former allies . The Italian press says that Matteo Salvini, who triggered the crisis by proposing a motion of censure against Conte that he later withdrew, is willing to offer Luigi Di Maio to be prime minister to resurrect the coalition. The leader of the League caused the fall of the Executive with the intention of capitalizing on the excellent results obtained by his party in the May European elections and forcing new elections that, except surprises, would make him prime minister. The surprise was that the M5E and the PD, despite having attacked for months, are preparing to negotiate a government agreement that will crystallize, will lead Salvini to the opposition.

The 'leguista' Gian Marco Centinaio, acting minister of agriculture and a man of confidence of the leader of the League, confirmed in an interview this Saturday to the newspaper 'La Stampa' that his party was willing to recover the government pact with the M5E . "We have to reason about things that have not gone well and understand those that we can carry forward," he said.

In the PD they suspect that the M5E could be negotiating in parallel an agreement with the League to resurrect the coalition, perhaps with a redistribution of the ministries and the main exponents of the Executive. "It would be serious from the point of view of political transparency," Zingaretti warned. A hypothesis that the M5E has denied.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • Sergio Mattarella
  • Matteo Salvini
  • Matteo Renzi
  • Italy

Italy The 5 Star Movement teams up with former Prime Minister Renzi to stop Matteo Salvini

Italy The parties fail to resolve the political crisis: no agreement on the date of the motion of censure against Conte

Italy The political resurrection of Matteo Renzi, Pedro Sánchez of Italian politics