Talks between Italy’s anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) and the Democratic Party (PD) resumed yesterday after a quarrel that had threatened to stop the nascent coalition in its tracks.
The parties, former foes who have agreed to govern together to prevent Italy going to early elections, were tentatively up-beat after the policy discussions, which were also attended by premier-designate Giuseppe Conte.
“We have taken some steps forward,” said Graziano Delrio, lower house leader of Italy’s PD.
There would be further talks with the M5S in the coming hours, he added.
Conte has been tasked with forming a new government following the collapse of Italy’s populist coalition earlier this month.
On Friday the M5S – which has far more seats in parliament than its new ally – had warned that the deal could still fall apart, should the PD not agree to a list of its key demands.
The suggestion by the M5S chief, Luigi Di Maio, that he was ready to pull the plug and return to the polls alarmed the markets and angered the PD.
He had warned that “either we are in agreement on carrying through the points of our (M5S) programme, or we stop here”.
Should the PD – which was the M5S’s bitter enemy until just a couple of weeks ago – not agree to the M5S’s key policy demands, “it would be better to go back to the polls as soon as possible”, he said.
“We’re not looking at a government just to get by, we consider some of the points of our programme indispensable,” Di Maio added.
“We’ll see over the coming hours,” M5S’s Senate chief Stefano Patuanelli told reporters yesterday, but the preliminary talks had gone well, he added.
The party’s lower house leader Francesco D’Uva denied press reports that some deputies within the M5S were irritated by Di Maio’s Friday ultimatum, saying: “I haven’t heard any whining.”
Italy has been in political turmoil since hardline interior minister Matteo Salvini, head of the far-right League, pulled his support from a coalition with the M5S.
The PD-M5S tie-up would keep the far-right out of power, while a return to the ballot boxes would likely favour the popular, anti-immigrant Salvini.
Political watchers have said that Di Maio, 33, is fighting for his political life after the previous M5S-League coalition saw him reduced to an extra in what essentially became Salvini’s show.
Di Maio has reportedly demanded he be kept on as a deputy prime minister – something the PD is set against.
“Luigi’s most bellicose advisers are entertaining the idea of pulling the rug on the deal if the negotiations for cabinet posts go badly for their chief,” Simone Canettieri wrote in the Messaggero newspaper on Friday.
She said that Di Maio was sending “clear warnings” to Conte, including his insistence that any programme accord between the M5S and PD would have to be voted on online by the Movement’s members.
That vote is expected to take place only once Conte has unveiled his team next week.
The M5S is flexing its muscles because it was the biggest winner in last year’s general election, with more than 33% of the vote, while the PD came in second with nearly 19%.
Michiel van der Veen, an economist with RaboResearch, warned that “plenty of (M5S) voters are expected to oppose a tie-up, while M5S also wants technocrats in important ministerial positions rather than the PD’s preferred option of politicians”.
The parties are also divided on issues such as migration laws and a high-speed railway between Italy and France.
Salvini’s League, the smaller, far-right Brothers of Italy party, and former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right Forza Italia party, have all insisted the country hold fresh elections.
However, on Friday Salvini excluded any future alliance with tycoon Berlusconi’s Forza Italia – predicted to win 7% of votes – telling a rally near Padua that “we don’t need anything or anyone”.
Salvini dismissed the ongoing coalition talks as “a squalid spectacle” and repeated his demand that President Sergio Mattarella call elections.
A Quorum Youtrend poll published by SkyTG24 on Friday found the League still far outstrips the other parties despite a recent decline, bagging 32% of voter intentions, compared to 22% for the PD and 19% for M5S.
Should the talks break down, Italy could hold an election at the beginning of November.