OK to basic income if limited - Salvini (2)

(ANSA) - Ischia, March 30 - League leader Matteo Salvini said Friday that he would be in favour of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement's (M5S) flagship basic income proposal if the benefit is limited to a temporary period to enable the jobless to get back on their feet. "If the (M5S's proposed) citizenship wage is not an unlimited investment, open to everyone for those who aren't working - something I'd be strongly against as if would be the end of merit and of incentives to do business and seek a job - but a temporary investment for those who have lost their job while they find a new one, then we can talk about it," he said.
    Salvini said he is hopeful an agreement can be found to form a government with a majority in parliament after this month's inconclusive general election. "We don't have the numbers now but we hope to have them within a few days," Salvini, whose anti-migrant, Euroskeptic party is the lead group in the centre-right coalition that came first in the election, said as he left a hotel in Ischia where he is spending the Easter holidays. "The work of parliament started without weeks of waiting and without rows, thanks to the mediation conducted by the League.
    "Let's hope we can do the same with the government". Salvini says the centre right should lead the next government as the coalition is the biggest bloc in parliament with around 37% of the vote.
    But the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement says it should be the lead player as it is the biggest single party in the new parliament with around 32% of the vote. Salvini said that he will resume talks with M5S leader Luigi Di Maio after the Easter break. "We'll talk to Di Maio after Easter," Salvini said. "We are assessing things with the 5 Stars. I can't say at the moment whether these assessments will go far or will stop". He added that he was aiming to be premier while stressing that this was not a deal-breaking condition for the formation of a new government: "I'm interested in working for Italy. I don't have the arrogance to say me or no one". "It's not as if you sit down to the table and say: I don't like you, go away!", he said. "You start from projects, not from names, from the premiers". "You start from the things to be done, taxes, work, security, the important thing are the things to be done. Salvini has said he will stand by his alliance with centre-right Forza Italia (FI) leader Silvio Berlusconi, despite misgivings from the M5S. Government-formation talks, which start next week, are likely to take months. The talks should start from the centre right's programme, Salvini said. "Seeing as how the centre right was the coalition that won (the March 4 general election), I'm prepared to give life to a government that starts from the centre-right programme," he said. Salvini said that meant "the cancellation of the Fornero (pension reform) law, cutting taxes, controlling borders, and the expulsion of clandestine immigrants".