League leader Matteo Salvini and
5-Star Movement (M5S) leader Luigi Di Maio said Thursday that
they were making progress in talks on the formation of a new
government after a meeting at the Lower House.
"Significant steps forward have been made on the composition
of the executive and the premier in view of a constructive
collaboration between the parties with the aim of deciding
everything in a short period of time to give a response and a
political government to the country as soon as possible," a
joint statement said.
The League and the 5-Star Movement (M5S) have asked President
Sergio Mattarella for more time for their talks for a possible
agreement to form a new government, sources said Thursday.
They have asked to be allowed to continue negotiations at
least until Sunday, which means developments could emerge on
Monday, the sources said.
Mattarella had looked poised to give a mandate for the
formation of a 'neutral' technocrat government on Wednesday,
given the deadlock that followed the March general election, but
the League and the M5S asked him for 24 hours for last-ditch
talks on a possible new executive.
Ex-premier and Forza Italia (FI) leader Silvio Berlusconi
opened the way for the talks to open in earnest late on
Wednesday when he said that he would not consider the
centre-right coalition to have broken down if its ally, the
anti-migrant, Euroskeptic League, forms a government with the
M5S.
The anti-establishment group had refused to negotiate with
the centre right as a whole, saying it was only willing to form
an executive with the League.
The League and FI govern many regions together.
Berlusconi stressed, however, that FI would not vote in
favour of a confidence motion on a M5S-League government.
The League and the M5S would not need FI's support to have a
majority in parliament because they won over half of the vote in
March's general election.
"Technical" representatives of the 5-Star Movement and the
League met on Thursday afternoon as part of government-formation
talks.
The joint statement said the meeting between Salvini and Di
Maio took place "in a positive climate to set the programme and
government priorities".
Security and migrant landings will be key parts of the
government programme Salvini said later Thursday.
"The issue of immigration, security and landings will be a
founding part of the government programme," he said.
Salvini said he was "proud" that "we are talking about issues
and not names".
Salvini said "we have asked President Mattarella for two or
three days to seal everything" in the possible government deal,
"or else we will vote".
A basic income and a flat tax are "important starting points"
for the government programme, M5S MP Alfonso Bonafede said
after the first government-contract talks between the two
parties.
He said the "first step" would be a government contract
within three days.
Conflicts of interest such as that involving media magnate
Berlusconi are among the issues on the agenda of the M5S-League
working group, Bonafede said.
"We spoke about it and there's no problem," he said.
"There are no details yet on the individual measures: in
these days we will work to prepare the initial proposals and
then we'll get into the details".
The M5S delegation said after the talks that there had been
"very many convergences" with the League, "beyond expectations",
including on the flat tax and immigration as well as "total
harmony" on scrapping the 2011 Fornero pension law.
Meanwhile the possibility of a "staffetta" or "baton change"
between the League and the M5S for the premiership was aired.
Third-party names were also touted including the IMF's Carlo
Cottarelli, former unheeded spending review honcho and former
labour minister Enrico Giovannini.
If the League is to have the premiership, if only for a
spell, former Andreotti defence lawyer Giulia Bongiorno and
Lower House Whip Giancarlo Gioregtti have been floated.
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