Section:GDN 1N PaGe:19 Edition Date:190821 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 20/8/2019 20:08 cYanmaGentaYellowb
Wednesday 21 Au g u st 2019 The Guardian •
Sitting tenants 19
Ex-MPs told to quit
plush Delhi homes
Page 20Melting point
Global heating takes
its toll on US cities
Page 24Conte quits as Italian PM with
attack on ‘opportunist’ Salvini
Angela Giuff rida
RomeGiuseppe Conte has resigned as Italy’s
prime minister after blasting Matteo
Salvini, leader of the far-right League,
as an “opportunist” for triggering a
government crisis that could have
“serious consequences” for Italy.
The outgoing prime minister said
Salvini, who is deputy prime minis-
ter and interior minister, had betrayed
Italian citizens after breaking his
party’s alliance with the anti-estab-
lishment Five Star Movement (M5S)
earlier this month. Salvini is eager to
exploit the League’s growing popular-
ity by bringing about snap elections.
“He is only looking after his own
interests and those of his party,” said
Conte. “Calling on voters every year
is irresponsible,” he said, adding that
the prospect of Salvini as Italy’s next
prime minister was “worrying”. By
resigning, Conte has avoided the no-
confi dence vote sought by the League.
The power to dissolve parliament
and call new elections rests withItaly’s president, Sergio Mattarella,
who could also seek the formation of
a new parliamentary majority or install
a technical government. The timing
of Salvini’s manoeuvre is sensitive as
Italy must present its draft budget for
2020 by the end of September.
Conte said Salvini’s choices in
recent weeks revealed “poor institu-
tional sensitivity” and “a serious lack
of constitutional culture”. He also crit-
icised the minister’s use of religious
symbols in his campaigning as “off en-
sive to the faithful”.
Kissing a rosary, Salvini re sponded
in the Senate by saying “I’ll ask the
Madonna for protection for as long as
I live. I’m the only humble witness. My
country matters more to me than the
comfy seats [of power] .”
He said Italy’s most pressing prob-
lem was its low birthrate, adding that
a League government would support
a €50bn budget for 2020 that focu sed
“on lowering taxes, the right to life...
growth, investment ”.
If elected, he would “focus on Ital-
ians, not on Merkel or Macron ... I am
proud, free and nationalist. Italy willbe about children who have a mum
and a dad.”
If Mattarella does call new elec-
tions, then they would need to be held
within 45 to 70 days.
The usually mild-mannered Conte
upped the ante against Salvini at the
weekend, accusing him of disloyalty
and being obsessed with closing Italy’s
ports to migrants. The row eruptedafter Conte refused to sign an order
banning the Open Arms migrant res-
cue vessel from docking in the island
of Lampedusa.
Last night an Italian prosecutor,
Luigi Patronaggio, ordered the sei-
zure of the ship and the evacuation
of the more than 80 migrants on board.
The move capped a dramatic day
that saw some 15 migrants jump in the
sea. With the help of rescue workers,
they reached the shores of the nearby
island of Lampedusa.
Since the May European parliamen-
tary elections, Salvini has been seeking
to capitalise on his party’s popularity :
it is polling in fi rst place at about 38%.
But the party is much weaker in the
Italian parliament after trailing M5S
and the centre-left Democratic party
(PD) in March 2018 elections, when it
took 17% of the vote.
His strategy could be thwarted if
M5S and the PD formed an alternative
majority. Matteo Renzi, a PD senator
and former PM, is spearheading talks
between factions of both parties.
In an interview with Radio 24 before
Conte’s resignation, Salvini said:
“What sense is a government against
Salvini, with all inside? A government
needs to be strong in order to get things
done. Who would an M5S-PD execu-
tive represent?”‘[Salvini] is only
looking after his own
interests and those
of his party. Calling
on voters every year
is irresponsible’Giuseppe Conte
Outgoing PM▲ Five Star Movement supporters at
a rally outside parliament in Rome as
Conte announced his resignation
PHOTOGRAPH: ANGELO CARCONI/EPA▲ Matteo Salvini kisses his rosary as
Conte gives his resignation speechAnalysis
Angela Giuff ridaDecision could
leave League’s
ambitious star
out in the cold
T
his government ends
here,” said Giuseppe
Conte as he announced
his resignation as
Italy’s prime minister
yesterday. But what
happens next is far from clear.
President Sergio Mattarella now
call s the shots in a crisis triggered
earlier this month by Matteo
Salvini when he severed his League
party’s relationship with the anti-
establishment Five Star Movement
(M5S) in a bid to become PM.
Mattarella has three options:
dissolve parliament and call snap
elections, consult with parties to see
if a new majority can be formed, or
install a caretaker government to at
least pass Italy’s budget for 2020.
Salvini is a highly eff ective
campaigner, who has raised the far-
right League from 17% at the 2018
election to 38% in recent polls , but
he is not much of a strategist.
A major blunder was failing to
factor in the possibility of M5S
teaming up with the centre-left
Democratic party (PD) to forge a
new majority. The League might be
leading in the polls but comes third
in parliamentary seats, behind M5S
and the PD. The threat became clear
when both parties last week blocked
Salvini’s calls for an immediate vote
of no confi dence in Conte.
“I think he believed that he
could easily translate his consensus
among voters in line with votes in
parliament,” said Alfonso Giordano,
a politics professor at Rome’s Luiss
University. “He forgot that the
League is still only at 17%.”
If M5S and the PD do manage to
strike a deal, Salvini would lose the
deputy PM and interior minister
roles from which he has spent the
last year building his profi le.
“If he doesn’t go to elections in
the short term it is a problem as he
could lose ground if in opposition
for too long,” said Giordano.RELEASED BY "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws