Italy Center-Right Coalition Stresses Unity After Arcore Meeting

EghtesadOnline: Italy’s center-right alliance will present a united stance to President Sergio Mattarella during a second round of talks with party leaders next week, possibly reducing chances of a pact between the League and the fellow-populist Five Star Movement.

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09 April 2018

Euroskeptic League leader Matteo Salvini, Forza Italia’s Silvio Berlusconi and Brothers of Italy’s Giorgia Meloni will not give up on their request to have a center-right premier, they said in a note after a meeting in Arcore, near Milan, on Sunday.

According to Bloomberg, Mattarella is expected to hold a second round of talks with party leaders next weekend in an effort to break a monthlong political gridlock, after both Salvini and Five Star leader Luigi Di Maio failed to get a parliamentary majority in the March 4 election. Friction between the two sides centers on Di Maio’s insistence on the premiership and his opposition to a role for Forza Italia.

Meanwhile, Di Maio is seeking dialogue with other parties to allow him to reach a parliamentary majority before presidential talks resume, extending a hand both to the ruling Democratic Party and to the League.

On Saturday, the leader invited the Democratic Party, which he previously strongly criticized, to “bury the hatchet” and start a conversation on possible government options. His position, published in an interview in newspaper La Repubblica, left Democratic leaders divided.

While Maurizio Martina -- the party’s acting secretary following the departure of Matteo Renzi -- said the PD’s decision not to take part in a government hasn’t changed after Di Maio’s appeal, others, including minister Dario Franceschini, suggested a possible positive response to Five Star’s invitation.