Salvini to call Di Maio as right-wing overtures begin

Matteo Salvini at the Foreign Press Association. Photo: Tim Wade.

ROME – Matteo Salvini confirmed at a press conference on Wednesday that he was intending to call Luigi Di Maio later in the day, following a meeting of the leaders of the centre-right coalition at the house of Silvio Berlusconi in Rome to decide on a strategy for electing presidents of the two houses of parliament.

 Salvini and Giorgia Meloni met with Silvio Berlusconi, with the League’s leader emerging on Wednesday morning with the mandate to head negotiations with the Five Star Movement (M5S).   

 The meeting at Palazzo Grazioli was an attempt by Berlusconi to stave off the possibility of the League independently doing a deal with M5S, according to Il Messaggero. It also marked another important show of unity between the group, who have often looked fractious and only appeared together once during the electoral campaign.

 Some of those fears were on display when the League’s leader arrived to be greeted by the aging media tycoon, with Il Cavaliere joking that while he was “the owner here,” Salvini “is the owner of the centre-right.”

 Nonetheless, speaking to the Foreign Press, Salvini reiterated that he had no intention of doing a separate deal with any party. “We are working on a common proposal of the centre-right,” he affirmed.

 He noted that while there was a “cultural difference” between M5S and the coalition, he would look to find a deal. “Let’s see if there’s a common idea,” he proposed.

 Speaking on Wednesday Salvini said the priority was to reform the EU, especially regarding immigration and agriculture. The comments followed a trip to Strasbourg on Tuesday, where the League’s leader called the single currency “a mistake” and threatened to exceed the three percent budget deficit cap imposed by Brussels on Italian spending.

 While in Strasbourg, he also found time to take a selfie with Nigel Farage, the former leader of the UK Independence Party. Farage joins the growing list of international right-wingers showing an interest in Italian politics, with Steve Bannon flying into Rome to watch the election and Brothers of Italy leader, Giorgia Meloni, meeting with Viktor Orban.

 Intriguingly, as the current chair of the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy group at the EU parliament, Farage is actually allied to the Five Star Movement. This despite the protestations of Luigi Di Maio on Tuesday at a press conference in Rome that he was “with Brussels and not against it.”

 Italy’s new parliament will have more female representatives than previously, with 271 women in total set to take their seats on March 23. However, the figure is still less than a third of the entire legislature, despite Italy’s recent “Rosatellum” electoral law calling for female representation to be at least 40 percent.

 Maurizio Martina was appointed as the interim secretary for the Democratic Party (PD) earlier in the week, following the resignation of Matteo Renzi and promptly announced that the party would not be making any deal with M5S.

 Martina’s new role means he has had to step down from his position as Agriculture Minister. Nonetheless, Martina is unlikely to be worked off his feet with the PD leadership appearing set on refusing every deal. Evidently those in charge of the party believe a period of opposition may remind Italians of the stability a PD government.

 Meanwhile, Italy’s national statistics agency, ISTAT, reported that Italian unemployment had fallen to 11.2 percent in 2017. However, the average figure masks the internal division of the country, especially the south where unemployment is three times higher.

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