Italian PM threatens to quit unless coalition stops bickering

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Monday he was ready to resign unless the two parties in the governing populist coalition -- the League and the Five Star Movement -- stopped squabbling.

Published: 4 June 2019 09:06 CEST

Italian PM threatens to quit unless coalition stops bickering

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte speaking on Monday night. Photo: Alberto Pizzoli/AFP

“I am asking both these political forces to make a choice and tell me if they still want to honour the government's obligations,” he said. If not, “I will simply end my mandate.”

Relations between the League and M5S soured during the campaign for European parliamentary elections on May 26th.

“I want a clear, unequivocal and speedy response,” Conte said, calling for a “loyal collaboration” from all ministers.

Photo: Filippo Monteforte/AFP

Conte is seeking a firm mandate to continue a dialogue with the European Union over Italy's public debt. Italy's hard-right Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, who is from the League, said last Tuesday that he expected Brussels to sanction his country for its deteriorating deficit and huge debt by imposing a fine of €3 billion.

The League and the M5S have sparred over a host of issues and strongman Salvini, deputy prime minister and some already accuse the anti-immigration interior minister of acting as if he were head of government.

'Playing to the gallery'

Salvini has also put out a host of controversial tweets. “At a time when youth unemployment is reaching 50 percent in some regions… someone in Brussels is asking us, under past rules, for a fine of three billion euros,” he told RTL radio recently.

Conte said on Monday: “If there are political questions to be resolved, one does not send ambiguous signals through the press and use witticisms on social media. We have been tasked with designing the future of the country, which is different from playing to the gallery and collecting 'likes' on social media,” he said.

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Salvini did not even wait for the end of Conte's press conference to declare: “We are ready, we want to go ahead and we can't lose time, the League is ready.”

But he also evoked the League's historic performance in the European Union elections, as well as its moves to tighten security, stop immigration and put an end to the politics of austerity.

Five Star's Luigi Di Maio also responded on Facebook, saying: “We are loyal, we want to get to work immediately… Let's forge ahead with loyalty and coherence, we still have to change a lot of things.”

The populist coalition in Italy was already in conflict with Brussels late last year over Rome's big-spending 2019 budget, which the commission rejected in a historic first.

Both sides finally softened their positions to reach a compromise, but in the commission's latest economic forecasts, published in early May, Italy was the worst economic performer in the eurozone, with zero growth well below other countries and debt at a record level.

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The strike comes after Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama — who is close to Meloni — called a top RAI editor to complain about a television report into Italy’s controversial migration deal with his country.

The Usigrai trade union called the strike from May 6 to May 7 saying talks with management had failed to address their concerns.

It cited numerous issues, including staff shortages and contract issues, but in first place was “the suffocating control over journalistic work, with the attempt to reduce RAI to a megaphone for the government”.

It had already used that phrase to object to what critics say is the increasing influence over RAI by figures close to Prime Minister Meloni, who leads Italy’s most right-wing government since World War II.

However, another union of RAI journalists, Unirai, said they would not join what they called a “political” strike, defending the return to “pluralism” at the broadcaster.

Funded in part by a licence fee and with top managers long chosen by politicians, RAI’s independence has always been an issue of debate.

But the arrival in power of Meloni — leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party, who formed a coalition with Matteo Salvini’s far-right League party and the late Silvio Berlusconi’s right-wing Forza Italia — redoubled concerns.

Tensions erupted at the weekend amid accusations RAI censored a speech by a leading writer criticising Meloni ahead of Liberation Day on April 25, when Italians mark the defeat of Fascism and the Nazis at the end of World War II.

Both RAI’s management and Meloni have denied censorship, and the premier posted the text of the monologue on her social media.

In another twist, Albania’s premier confirmed Thursday he called senior RAI editor Paolo Corsini about an TV report on Sunday into Italy’s plans to build two migration processing centres on Albanian territory.

Rama told La Stampa newspaper the report was “biased” and contained “lies” – adding that he had not raised the issue with Meloni.

The Report programme claimed the costs of migrant centres, which are under construction, were already “out of control” and raised questions about criminals benefiting from the project.