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Speaker of Italian senate given two days to break deadlock between centre-right and Five Star Movement

Italy's president has given the speaker of the senate until Friday to attempt to broker a deal between the centre-right and anti-establishment Five Star Movement, after two rounds of coalition talks failed.

Published: 18 April 2018 12:40 CEST
Updated: 18 April 2018 17:43 CEST
Speaker of Italian senate given two days to break deadlock between centre-right and Five Star Movement
Speaker Elisabetta Alberti Casellati after her meeting with President Sergio Mattarella on Wednesday. Photo: Fabio Frustaci/AFP

President Sergio Mattarella gave Speaker Elisabetta Alberti Casellati a two-day “exploratory” mandate at a meeting on Wednesday morning. Casellati, a member of Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, is tasked with “confirming the existence of a parliamentary majority” between the Five Star Movement (M5S) on one hand and a centre-right coalition on the other. 

The alliance between centrist Forza Italia, the nationalist League and far-right Brothers of Italy won the biggest share of the vote in last month's general election, with 37 percent. That isn't enough for a majority, however, and any coalition government risks crumbling without the backing of the M5S, which won nearly 33 percent just on its own.

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After the president's consultations with all parties failed to produce a deal, Casellati now faces the challenge of convincing the M5S to drop its opposition to Forza Italia and join the centre-right in a governing coalition.

However, it looks like she has a difficult task on her hands.

Following his talk with Casellati, M5S leader Di Maio said his party had reiterated that it would only form a coalition with the League, and not the centre-right as a whole. He described his party and the League as “the only forces capable of giving life to a government” and called on Salvini to make up his mind. 

Di Maio has long refused to govern with Berlusconi, whom he sees as epitomizing the cronyism that the M5S was set up to challenge. However, League leader Matteo Salvini is unlikely to accept a deal without Forza Italia: his party received more votes in the election than Berlusconi's, making it the dominant player in the centre-right coalition, but in a M5S-League coalition he would be relegated to junior partner.

On Wednesday afternoon, Salvini criticized Di Maio's unwillingness to budge. “It almost seems to me that Di Maio doesn't want to govern, or has chosen the PD [Democratic Party],” he said, adding: “If everyone sticks to their positions, we'll get nowhere.”

Both the League and M5S had earlier welcomed the opportunity for talks with Casellati, with the party leaders stressing the need for an end to the deadlock.

The Senate speaker will present the results of her consultations to president Sergio Mattarella on Friday.

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

Who is Italian President Sergio Mattarella? The man guiding Italy through rocky government talks
Photo: Alberto Pizzoli/AFP
 

POLITICS

Italy’s press freedom ranking drops amid fears of government ‘censorship’

Italy's ranking for press freedom worsened in 2024, with concerns about the silencing effect of defamation lawsuits and accusations of political influence over the country's media.

Published: 3 May 2024 09:43 CEST
Italy’s press freedom ranking drops amid fears of government 'censorship'

The annual World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Friday ranked Italy 46th, which was five places lower than in 2023 and behind all other western European countries and most EU member states.

Italy ranked alongside Poland (47th), while Hungary, Malta, Albania and Greece were the only other countries in Europe to score lower.

France, Spain, Germany and most other major European countries improved their ranking in 2024, with Norway, Denmark and Sweden topping the table for press freedom again this year.

Globally however press freedom has worsened due to political attacks in the past year, according to RSF, including the detention of journalists, suppression of independent media outlets and widespread dissemination of misinformation.

READ ALSO: How much control does Giorgia Meloni’s government have over Italian media?

The index ranks 180 countries on the ability of journalists to work and report freely and independently.

Italy fell in the ranking amid concerns about lawsuits filed against journalists by politicians and following recent allegations of a creeping government influence on the country’s media.

“For the most part, Italian journalists enjoy a climate of freedom,” RSF said.

“But they sometimes give in to the temptation to censor themselves, either to conform to their news organisation’s editorial line, or to avoid a defamation suit or other form of legal action, or out of fear of reprisals by extremist groups or organised crime.”

Italian journalists have in recent months alleged censorship at state broadcaster Rai, which critics say is increasingly influenced by Giorgia Meloni’s government, while a member of her coalition government is trying to acquire news agency AGI.

Italian journalists also “denounce attempts by politicians to obstruct their freedom to cover judicial cases by means of a “gag law” – legge bavaglio – on top of the SLAPP procedures that are common practice in Italy,” RSF said.

READ ALSO: ‘Warning’ to Italy’s journalists as court fines reporter for defaming Meloni

It noted the fact that ‘defamation’ remains a crime in Italy, and that this is often used in lawsuits filed against individual journalists by powerful public figures – such as in the high-profile 2023 case of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suing anti-mafia journalist Roberto Saviano.

Defamation through the media can be punished in Italy with prison sentences of between six months to three years.

Mafia threats also remain a major issue in Italy, RSF noted, where some 20 journalists are under round-the-clock police protection after being the targets of intimidation and attacks.

“Journalists who investigate organised crime and corruption are systematically threatened and sometimes subjected to physical violence for their investigative work,” RSF said.

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