Thursday22 August 2019 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES 3INTERNATIONAL
HANNAH ROBERTS AND
DAVIDE GHIGLIONE— ROMEItaly’s largest opposition party said it
was ready for talks over joining a coali-
tion as the country’s political leaders
sought a way out of the government cri-
sisfollowing Prime Minister Giuseppe
Conte’s resignation.
President Sergio Mattarella started
two days of exploratory contacts with
party leadersyesterday, hoping to find
options for a new government after the
collapse of a fractious 14-month coali-
tion between populist forces, the anti-
immigration League and the Five Star
Movement.
Mr Conte resigned on Tuesday, blam-
ing the collapse on Matteo Salvini, the
League leader and interior minister,
who called for new elections and tabled
a motion of no-confidence in the gov-
ernment. Nicola Zingaretti, whose
Democratic party could potentially
replace Mr Salvini’s League in a govern-
ment with Five Star, said he was open to
such an idea — while setting out a list of
conditions for any deal.
In particular, Mr Zingaretti called for
a new direction — a demand echoed by
other officials. “We are not the support
wheel to replace the League,” said And-
rea Orlando, PD deputy leader. “We are
a political force that asks for the opening
of a phase of radical change.”
Italy is a year and-a-half into a five-
year legislature and Mr Mattarella is
seemingly determined to seek an early
resolution to the crisis, with a bias
towards staving off fresh elections in the
run-up to a difficult 2020 budget. Rome
hopes to avoid another clash with the
EU over public spending and stave off a
big rise in value-added and sales tax.
Mr Mattarella cannot rule out the pos-
sibility of a reconciled League and Five
Star government. Or he couldchoose to
appoint a technocratic government to
pass the budget and hold elections next
year. But the numbers in parliament
will mean a key question for him is
whether Mr Zingaretti’s PD could agree
a coalition with Five Star, in effect
replacing Mr Salvini’s League in govern-
ment.Any such potential alliance would be
challenging thanks, in large part, to
internal PD politics, said Emiliana De
Blasio of Luiss University in Rome.
While Mr Zingaretti is party leader,
many MPs are loyal to Matteo Renzi, the
former PD premier. Rumours that he
could lead a schism in the PD, creating
his own centre party, pose a threat to the
stability of any government involving
the party. Mr Renzi, who was forced to
resign as premier in 2016 after losing a
referendum on parliamentary reforms,
is not only problematic for many in hisown party: he is also unacceptable to
many in Five Star, an anti-establish-
ment party that was hostile to the Renzi
government.
“For Five Star any coalition contain-
ing Renzi would be an own-goal and a
gift to Mr Salvini, who could use it to
attack from the opposition,” said Luigi
Curini, professor of political science at
the University of Milan.
If Mr Renzi were to return to govern-
ment as a minister “there would be a
revolution”, said Pierluigi Testa of the
Trinita dei Monti think-tank in Rome.There are also deep differences in pol-
icy between the parties, with the PD
more pro-Europe and in favour of infra-
structure projects such as the high-
speed rail link to France, opposed by
Five Star. Despite this, Francesco Clem-
enti, a professor in the political science
department at the University of Perugia,
said Mr Mattarella might lean towards
such a coalition because of the difficulty
of the alternative.
“Ultimately, it is easier for Mr Matta-
rella to convince Zingaretti to join a coa-
lition than it is to convince all the other
parties to go to elections, when many of
the parliamentarians will lose their
seats,” Mr Clementi said.
Both Five Star and Mr Zingaretti’s
objectives could be met if the PD minis-
ters in government were chosen by him
and did not include Mr Renzi, Mr Clem-
enti pointed out.
Yesterday, Mr Zingarettiset out con-
ditions for supporting a new govern-
ment with Five Star. They included
“reliable membership” of the EU; a ref-
erence to the Euroscepticism of Five
Star, and a change in economic and
social policies. Three sources said that
Mr Zingaretti had held phone talks with
Luigi Di Maio, Five Star’s leader.
Maria Elena Boschi, a PD MP and allyof Mr Renzi, said: “For some of us, this
possible coalition with Five Star could
be difficult, but the interests of the
country and the Italians come first and
we can put personal bad feeling aside.”
Five Star, which like the PD and
League will formally meet Mr Matta-
rella today, emphasised it still had most
seats in parliament and therefore took
precedence in forming a government.
“We will wait for the result of the con-
sultations,”the party said. “This is a
time to respect the institutions.”
Editorial Commentpage 8
Inside Businesspage 12Italy parties in talks to keep Salvini out
Zingaretti’s opposition Democratic party sets out demands for coalition deal with Five Star Movement
State of flux:
Matteo Salvini,
left, outside
parliament
yesterday. Plans
for his League
party to be
replaced by
PD in a new
coalition
seemed to be
gaining traction
Filippo Monteforte /AFP/Getty‘This possible coalition
with Five Star could be
difficult, but the interestsof the country come first’
JAMES POLITI— WASHINGTON
KANA INAGAKI AND LEO LEWIS— TOKYOThe US and Japan are dashing to clear
the final hurdles on the way to a partial
trade deal that could be finalised as
early as next month, potentially deliv-
ering some relief from the commercial
tensions battering the world economy.Toshimitsu Motegi, Japan’s economy
minister, is due in Washingtonfor piv-
otal talks with US trade representative
Robert Lighthizer that could determine
the chances of a deal being agreed soon,
say people familiar with the matter.
The agreement that is being discussed
would fall short of a comprehensive
trade deal, which would be pushed to a
later stage. This “early harvest” or
“mini-deal”, as some negotiators have
described it, would involve Japan fur-
ther opening up its agricultural market
toUS goods in exchange for some cuts to
US industrial tariffs.
Japan is also expecting some form of
immunity, or an exemption, from possi-
ble tariffs on automotive importsthat
US president Donald Trump has threat-
ened to impose on national security
grounds later this year.
But US expectations that a place-
holder deal can be reached imminently
challenges the Japanese government
position that a rushed or partial deal is
unacceptable to Tokyo, according to
people close to Japanese negotiators.
The discussions are taking place on
the eve of the G7 summit in France,
where Mr Trump and Shinzo Abe,
Japan’s prime minister, could give their
high-level political blessing to an accord
with the aim of completing it at the UN
General Assembly meetings in Septem-
ber. Although this timeline is realistic,
people familiar with the talks cautioned
that the talks could stall or fall apart.
The push for a deal has intensified as
Mr Trump has come under mounting
political pressure to show some results
from his disruptive trade agenda.Washington
US and Japan
look to strike
partial trade
agreement
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