League leader Matteo Salvini has
asked Premier Mario Draghi for a three-way meeting also
featuring Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese, of whom the
nationalist leader has been sharply critical recently over
increased migrant arrivals and the alleged lack of policing of a
massive rave party straddling the borders of Lazio and Tuscany,
among other things.
"If a minister is competent they should show it, if they have a
will they should show it, otherwise they should leave their post
for someone else," Salvini said at the annual meetig of the
influential Catholic activist group Comunione e Liberazione
(CL).
Migrant flows to Italy have been sharply up this year compared
to last and a hotspot on the stepping stone island of Lampedusa
is overflowing, with more than twice its capacity being filled.
The huge illegal rave party that brought young people from
across Europe to a country site straddling Lazio and Tuscany was
broken up last Thursday leaving piles of waste, at least four
alcohol-induced comas and one
drowning death in its week-long trail, plus a political furore
as rightwingers like Salvini and fellow nationalist Giorgia
Meloni of Brothers of Italy (FdI) attacked the interior minister
over the alleged lack of policing of the event.
On another issue, a call for the resignation of Economy
Undersecretary Claudio Durigon to quit or be sacked after the
nationalist League MP called for a park in his home city,
Latina, to be renamed after Arnaldo Mussolini, the brother of
Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, Salvini appeared to open to
the possibility, saying it might be discussed, after previously
defending the official at all costs.
The park in the city founded by Mussolini after he drained the
Pontine Marshes is currently named after Giovanni Falcone and
Paolo Borsellino, two anti-mafia prosecuting magistrates who
were murdered by Cosa Nostra in 1992.
Ex-European Parliament president Antonio Tajani, No.2 in
ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right Forza Italia (FI)
party, said "we aren't asking for anyone to resign and at this
difficult moment it is useless to waste time on internal
political battles".
Asked about the renewed calls for Durigon to go, Tajani said
"this government must put the national interest before partial
interests".
Ettore Rosato of the centrist Italia Viva (IV) party said he did
not think there would be a government crisis over Durigon.
Anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) MP Mario Perantoni said
the M5S would file a no-confidence motion in Durigon unless he
quit.
Centre-left Democratic Party (PD) leader Enrico Letta on Tuesday
reiterated a call for Economy Undersecretary Claudio Durigon to
quit or be sacked.
Answering a question on whether Durigon should resign, Letta
replied "Yes. Apology of Fascism is incompatible with the
Constitution and our government. I believe the affair must be
resolved".
Letta attacked Salvini and Meloni for their allegedly extremist
stances saying "Berlusconi was a bed of rose compared to them".
Meanwhile Mattia Santori, of the Sardines movement that rose up
in Emilia-Romagna against the League and the spread nationally,
announced that he would stand for the PD in Bologna.
He said another four or five Sardines would follow him.
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