BFF-69 Italy heads to new elections as caretaker PM named

666

ZCZC

BFF-69

ITALY-POLITICS-UPDATE

Italy heads to new elections as caretaker PM named

ROME, May 28, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Italy was hurtling to new elections within
months on Monday as the country is mired in political chaos after a bid by
two populist parties to form a government collapsed.

The latest crisis was sparked when President Sergio Mattarella vetoed the
nomination of fierce eurosceptic Paolo Savona as economy minister in a
coalition of the far-right League and anti-establishment Five Star Movement.

His action on Sunday — which came after months of political turmoil in
the wake of an inconclusive March election — sparked angry calls for his
impeachment.

On Monday, Mattarella chose Carlo Cottarelli, an economist formerly with
the International Monetary Fund, to form a caretaker government to take Italy
into new elections.

The chaos sent Italian stocks tumbling by as much as two percent at one
stage, and bond yields surging.

Cottarelli said that should his technocrat government win parliamentary
approval, it would stay in place until elections at the start of 2019.

“I will come to parliament with a programme that, if I win the vote of
confidence, will include a vote on the 2019 budget. Then parliament will be
dissolved, with elections at the start of 2019,” he said.

But if parliament fails to approve his government, a new election would be
held “after August” — the most likely outcome given only the centre-left
Democratic party has announced that it would vote in favour.

– ‘Mr Scissors’ –

The League and the Five Star abandoned their plans to form a coalition
government after the president’s veto of Savona, and their approved nominee
for prime minister, lawyer and political novice Giuseppe Conte, stepped
aside.

Mattarella, 76, said he had accepted every proposed minister except Savona,
who has called the euro a “German cage” and has said that Italy needs a plan
to leave the single currency “if necessary”.

The leaders of Five Star and the League, Luigi Di Maio and Matteo Salvini,
furiously denounced the veto, decrying what they called meddling by Germany,
debt ratings agencies and financial lobbies.

Cottarelli, 64, was director of the IMF’s fiscal affairs department from
2008 to 2013 and became known as “Mr Scissors” for making cuts to public
spending in Italy.

He will struggle to win parliament’s approval with Five Star and the League
commanding a majority in both houses.

– ‘First impeachment, then polls’ –

“They’ve replaced a government with a majority with one that won’t obtain
one,” said Di Maio, calling for the president to be impeached.

“I hope that we can give the floor to Italians as soon as possible, but
first we need to clear things up. First the impeachment of Mattarella… then
to the polls.”

Salvini, a fellow eurosceptic who was Savona’s biggest advocate, declared
that Italy was not a “colony”, and “we won’t have Germany tell us what to
do”.

On Monday, Salvini threatened to break his alliance with the League’s pre-
election rightwing coalition partner Silvio Berlusconi should the media
mogul’s Forza Italia party vote for the caretaker government. The 81-year-old
billionaire former prime minister released a statement Sunday in which he
praised Mattarella’s efforts to “safeguard this country’s families and
businesses”.

His partnership with Salvini as part of a grouping that won the most votes
in March, is still in place despite the League’s attempt to form a government
with Five Star, as Forza Italia and the League hold local and regional
administrations together.

“Berlusconi’s statement yesterday was the same sort of thing that could
have been written by (former centre-left prime minister Matteo) Renzi,”
Salvini told Radio Capitale.

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen joined in their outrage, accusing the
president of a “coup d’etat” and saying the “European Union and financial
markets are again confiscating democracy”.

– ‘Diktats’ –

A former judge at Italy’s constitutional court, Mattarella refused to bow
to what he saw as “diktats” from the two parties that he considered contrary
to the country’s interests.

He had watched for weeks as Five Star and the League set about trying to
strike an alliance to win a parliamentary majority.

Mattarella said he had done “everything possible” to aid the formation of a
government, but that an openly eurosceptic economy minister ran against the
parties’ joint promise to simply “change Europe for the better from an
Italian point of view”.

“I asked for the (economy) ministry an authoritative person from the
parliamentary majority who is consistent with the government programme… who
isn’t seen as a supporter of a line that could probably, or even inevitably,
provoke Italy’s exit from the euro,” Mattarella said.

The president said Conte refused to support “any other solution” and faced
with Mattarella’s refusal to approve Savona gave up his mandate to be prime
minister.

BSS/AFP/ARS/1826 hrs