M5S online vote on govt with PD Tuesday

(ANSA) - Rome, September 2 - An online vote by grass-roots members of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement on forming a government with the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) will take place from 09:00 to 18:00 Tuesday, the M5S said Sunday.
    M5S leader Luigi Di Maio said Monday the fate of the possible new government will be decided by the vote on the Rousseau platform. M5S Senate Whip Stefano Patuanelli said Monday that if the response is no then premier-designate Giuseppe Conte will have to tell President Sergio Mattarella that his government-formation bid has failed.
    Conte is expected to go and see Mattarella either on Tuesday evening, or more probably, on Wednesday evening, when he will 'drop his reservations' on forming the new government if a deal has been made.
    The new government would replace that between the M5S and the anti-migrant Euroskeptic League party, on which League leader and outgoing interior minister Matteo Salvini pulled the plug on August 8 citing M5S inaction.
    A big hurdle facing a deal is the PD's insistence on a change from Salvini's policy of denying Italian port access to NGO migrant rescue ships.
    M5S leader Luigi Di Maio has said the M5S will not disown the last government's policies in this area.
    But PD leader Nicola Zingaretti on Sunday called for two ships that had been banned from entering Italian waters, the Mare Jonio and the Alan Kurdi, to be allowed to land their total of 44 migrants.
    On Monday a third ship, the Eleonore, started heading for Sicily and Salvini vowed to keep it out.
    But the Eleonore docked at Pozzallo - while the Mare Jonio was given permission to land at Lampedusa. Another obstacle to a government deal is Di Maio's insistence on keeping the deputy premier's job.
    The PD said Sunday the new government should dispense with deputy premiers altogether, solving the problem.
    On Monday Zingaretti told Conte that a "radical" change was needed from the last government's closed ports policy led by Salvini.
    The Alan Kurdi is is still engaged in one of the standoffs with Salvini that have boosted the League leader's poll numbers.
    But amid the high-profile standoffs with the NGOs, lower-profile so-called 'ghost landings of migrants directly from north Africa, not picked up by NGO ships, have been continuing apace.
    "What is happening in these hours in the Mediterranean, amid continuous landings on our coasts and inhuman bans, confirms that the immigration policies of the last few months have not solved anything," said Zingaretti.
    "I once more ask premier(-designate) Conte to immediately tackle the situation of persons blocked at sea in conditions of humanitarians emergency and, obviously, we continue to ask that we should gear up for a radical turnaround in the policies on these issues." The PD's likely government partner in the M5S have said they will not change Salvini's policies.