Italy s League and Five-Star could form electoral alliance
Monday - May 28, 2018 11:51 pm ,
Category : WORLD
Rome May 28 (IANS/AKI) Italy s anti-establishment Five-Star Movement and the far-right League party could campaign together in fresh national polls and their platform would be based on the joint anti-austerity agenda they drafted this month said Five-Star sources on Monday.
While Five-Star sources told AKI of the proposal League leader Matteo Salvini however dodged reporters questions on a possible electoral alliance with Five-Star.
"I ll have to think that through with a clear head " he said while praising the Five-Star politicians he worked with this month to hammer out a common programme of government.
"I found them to be serious sensible people who kept their word " he added.
An electoral alliance with the League would mark a total reversal of policy for Five-Star which has previously shunned alliances with other parties.
Five Star and the conservative alliance led by the League were the biggest winners in Italy s March 4 national election in which no party or bloc gained an outright majority.
On Monday Italy s President Sergio Mattarella invited a pro-austerity economist Carlo Cottarelli to form a caretaker technocrat government after populist premier designate Giuseppe Conte resigned when Mattarella vetoed his choice a eurosceptic economist as Finance Minister.
If Cottarelli s proposed cabinet line-up fails to pass a parliamentary confidence vote fresh elections will take place as soon as September Cottarelli said on Monday. If he wins a confidence vote his caretaker cabinet will oversee the 2019 budget and fresh polls will be held early next year he added.
Five-Star and the League - which together have a parliamentary majority in both houses - have vowed not to back Cottarelli and his proposed government s confidence vote.
--IANS/AKI
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While Five-Star sources told AKI of the proposal League leader Matteo Salvini however dodged reporters questions on a possible electoral alliance with Five-Star.
"I ll have to think that through with a clear head " he said while praising the Five-Star politicians he worked with this month to hammer out a common programme of government.
"I found them to be serious sensible people who kept their word " he added.
An electoral alliance with the League would mark a total reversal of policy for Five-Star which has previously shunned alliances with other parties.
Five Star and the conservative alliance led by the League were the biggest winners in Italy s March 4 national election in which no party or bloc gained an outright majority.
On Monday Italy s President Sergio Mattarella invited a pro-austerity economist Carlo Cottarelli to form a caretaker technocrat government after populist premier designate Giuseppe Conte resigned when Mattarella vetoed his choice a eurosceptic economist as Finance Minister.
If Cottarelli s proposed cabinet line-up fails to pass a parliamentary confidence vote fresh elections will take place as soon as September Cottarelli said on Monday. If he wins a confidence vote his caretaker cabinet will oversee the 2019 budget and fresh polls will be held early next year he added.
Five-Star and the League - which together have a parliamentary majority in both houses - have vowed not to back Cottarelli and his proposed government s confidence vote.
--IANS/AKI
vd
