Anti-establishment 5-Star Movement
(M5S) leader Luigi Di Maio laid down an apparent ultimatum on
enforcing the M%S programme after government-formation
consultations with premier-designate Giuseppe Conte Friday
spurring doubts within his potential partner, the centre-left
Democratic Party (PD), about whether he had changed his mind on
teaming up for a new executive.
Di Maio said that "if our points go into the (M5S-PD)
government programme we'll be able to start, otherwise the vote
is better", giving Conte a 20-point manifesto.
On perhaps the most contentious point, Di Maio said the M5S
did not want to change anti-migrant League leader and outgoing
interior minister Matteo Salvini's controversial hardline
migrant and security decrees mandating one million euro fines
for NGO rescue ships and barring them from Italian waters.
Changing the decrees is a key demand from the PD, which wants
to completely revoke them as one of the clear turning points
away from the M5S's former government with the League, on which
Salvini pulled the plug on August 8 citing M5S inaction.
After Di Maio's speech, PD deputy leader Andrea Orlando said:
"Di Maio's press conference was incomprehensible. Has he changed
his mind? He should say so, clearly".
And PD House Whip Graziano Delrio said "Di Maio's ultimatums
are unacceptable".
Former minister Maria Elena Boschi said Di Maio's "threats
are unacceptable" and called for the "turning-point government"
PD leader Nicola Zingaretti has repeatedly invoked, saying "we
want to avert a recession and the VAT hike".
PD deputy leader Paola De Micheli said Di Maio appeared to
have made an "incomprehensible" U-turn on the proposed alliance.
"We don't understand Di Maio," she said. "His position will
be clear to us in the coming hours".
She went on: "we ask for the acceptance of Mattarella's
requests" on Salvini's migrant clampdown.
She said "it is an indication in agreement with the Five
Stars".
But the M5S said it did not understand the PD's "amazement"
at Di Maio insisting on all their programme being adopted by the
possible new government.
"Luigi Di Maio once again reiterated that for the 5-Star
Movement issues are at the centre of any political action," the
party said in a statement.
"We don't understand the amazement of (the PD).
"What counts for us is the programme, solutions to Italians'
problems are what count, not posts. And we hope that is the same
for everyone."
M5S sources told the PD that they hadn''t "changed our minds"
on an M5S-PD government alliance.
"Does talking about the environment and asking for a
pro-business government mean changing our minds? Does asking for
tax cuts mean changing our minds? We repeat: solutions count,
not posts. And here is is a different point: we really want to
change the country".
And M5S Senate Whip Stefano Patuanelli said "there's really
nothing to be worried about.
He said negotiations on the new government were proceeding.
He said Di Maio had not adopted a "critical or aggressive
tone" but had instead been "honest and frank".
Asked if Di Maio wanted to pull the plug on the nascent
executive, Patuanelli replied "absolutely not".
"Now we're going to sit down to talks with the PD and
Conteand we'll find solutions".
Financial markets reacted to the tension with the bond spread
rising close to 180 points, from 160 Thursday, and the Milan
course wiping out gains.
Earlier Zingaretti confirmed that the the centre-left party
wants "changes made" to Salvini's decrees according to
Constitutional points raised by President Mattarella about
respecting international treaties on migrant sea rescues.
But contradicting Zingaretti, Di Maio said that changing the
decrees "doesn't make any sense".
He said that President Sergio Mattarella's observations on
the measures, that they don't respect international obligations,
"must be taken into account" "but without modifying the scope of
these measures".
He said "I have said that we do not deny these 14 months in
government".
Di Maio said that "either we agree to realise the points in
our programme or we don't go forward. We're not looking at a
government just to get by, we consider some of the points of the
document essential".
Di Maio said that "among the M5S priorities there is the cut
in the number of MPs (from 945 to 600)."
He said "two hours' parliamentary work are lacking and then
it becomes law, it must be approved in the first schedule of the
House and become law".
Di Maio also said that the new government must stop a VAT
hike, and it was against a wealth tax.
He said environmental protection would not be "just a slogan"
for the new government.
Di Maio said that the new government must revoke motorway
concessions to Autostrade per l'Italia (ASPI) in the wake of the
Genoa bridge disaster and approve "a serious law on conflict of
interest".
He added that the M5S delegation had in the talks with Conte
voiced our dismay for the surreal debate on posts. The
speculation on ministerial posts was predictable, with fantasy
names. but we don't find it healthy that these debates should
contaminate the political forces too".
Di Maio said "we were in government for 14 months, then
(Salvini) decided to bring everything down wasting a historic
opportunity".
Di Maio's tough talking prompted reporters to ask Conte if
the speech had made it harder to form a government.
Conte replied that he had not heard it.
Earlier Zingaretti said after his own consultations with
Conte that ISTAT figures showing stagnant growth and
unemployment and inflation both up confirm the need
for a "turnaround" from the new government.
"It was a meeting which took place on the day in which ISTAT
unfortunately confirms some negative data for our economy, data
which confirm the need for a turnaround and the need to open
what the premier-designate himself called a new political season
for the country," said the PD chief.
Zingaretti pledged a tax cut on medium to low wage earners.
He said he hoped the M5S-PD government programme would be a
"turning point for the country".
Zingaretti said he had not spoken about a government team
with Conte, that 10 billion euros should be invested in the
health sector, and that urban security should be a focus of the
government programme, replacing what has "hitherto been
propaganda".
He also said that education should be free for medium-to-low
earning households "from nursery school to university".
The programme, and the list of ministers, are not the only
hurdles facing the possible new government.
Others are Di Maio's insistence on keeping the deputy
premier's job, and the M5S's determination to have any
government deal ratified on its online platform Rousseau.
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