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POLITICS

Italy’s president calls for ‘urgent’ solution to political stalemate

The Italian president appealed on Friday for an "urgent" solution to the deadlock over who can lead a new government as talks with anti-establishment and right-wing leaders failed amid a row over Silvio Berlusconi.

Published: 13 April 2018 17:30 CEST
Italy's president calls for 'urgent' solution to political stalemate
President Sergio Mattarella announced that Italy's latest government talks had ended without a deal. Photo: Tiziana Fabi/AFP

On Friday President Sergio Mattarella, who guides the talks and has the job of naming the eventual prime minister, confirmed to reporters that there had been “no progress” after concluding the second round of consultations.

However, he stressed the need to quickly form a new government given a  series of pressing domestic and international issues like the tensions surrounding Syria, but said that he would wait a few days before deciding how to “end the deadlock”.

READ ALSO: Who is Italian President Sergio Mattarella? The man guiding Italy through rocky government talks

Salvini's right-wing coalition, which includes Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, is the largest group with 37 percent.

The M5S is Italy's largest single party after picking up just under 33 percent of the vote in the March 4th election.

Both have repeatedly said that they are ready to work together, but Di Maio has demanded that Salvini break with Berlusconi.

The League only picked up 17 percent on its own and Salvini has refused to ditch his partner.

The 81-year-old broke ranks at the end of Salvini's post-consultation speech to media on Thursday, blasting the M5S as not knowing “the ABCs of democracy”.

READ ALSO: 


Rightwing allies Giorgia Meloni, Matteo Salvini and Silvio Berlusconi after talks on Thursday. Photo: Tiziana Fabi/AFP

Later Di Maio asked Berlusconi, who cannot hold public office due to a tax fraud conviction, to “step aside” so that he could start working with Salvini.

But on Friday morning Salvini stood his ground and warned of new elections if they didn't stop “bickering”.

“The people will get fed up, I'll get fed up… either they pack it in or we vote,” Salvini said to national broadcaster Radio 1.

However, Mattarella has other options other than new elections at his disposal, including a third round of consultations or giving an “exploratory mandate” to an individual within the parliament who could try to gain consensus from the squabbling parties. 

READ ALSO: Italy's political rivals depicted as Caravaggio's cheats

The Cardsharps: Italy's political rivals depicted as Caravaggio's cheats
Photo: Fanny Carrier/AFP

POLITICS

Italy’s Meloni criticises her own government’s ‘Big Brother tax’ law

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Wednesday criticised an "invasive" tax evasion measure reintroduced by her own government, sparking accusations of incompetence from opposition lawmakers.

Published: 22 May 2024 17:12 CEST
Italy's Meloni criticises her own government's 'Big Brother tax' law

The measure, allowing Italy’s tax authorities to check bank accounts to look for discrepancies between someone’s declared income and their spending, was abolished in 2018 but its return was announced in the government’s official journal of business this week.

Meloni had previously been strongly critical of the ‘redditometro’ measure, and took to social media on Wednesday to defend herself from accusations of hypocrisy.

“Never will any ‘Big Brother tax’ be introduced by this government,” she wrote on Facebook.

Meloni said she had asked deputy economy minister Maurizio Leo – a member of her own far-right Brothers of Italy party, who introduced the measure – to bring it to the next cabinet meeting.

“And if changes are necessary, I will be the first to ask,” she wrote.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who heads the right-wing Forza Italia party, also railed against what he called an “obsolete tool”.

He called for it to be revoked, saying it did not fight tax evasion but “oppresses, invades people’s lives”.

Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, who leads the far-right League party, said it was “one of the horrors of the past” and deserved to stay there.

Opposition parties revelled in the turmoil within the governing coalition, where tensions are already high ahead of European Parliament elections in which all three parties are competing with each other.

“They are not bad, they are just incapable,” said former premier Matteo Renzi, now leader of a small centrist party.

Another former premier, Five Star Movement leader Giuseppe Conte, asked of Meloni: “Was she asleep?”

The measure allows tax authorities to take into account when assessing someone’s real income elements including jewellery, life insurance, horse ownership, gas and electricity bills, pets and hairdressing expenses.

According to the government, tax evasion and fraud cost the Italian state around 95 to 100 billion euros each year.

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