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Five Star Movement’s ultimatum to the Italian right: Ditch Berlusconi by Sunday

Italy's anti-establishment party leader Luigi Di Maio on Wednesday gave far-right leader Matteo Salvini until the "end of the week" to dump coalition ally Silvio Berlusconi and strike a deal in the latest round of Italian government talks.

Published: 19 April 2018 09:00 CEST
Five Star Movement's ultimatum to the Italian right: Ditch Berlusconi by Sunday
Matteo Salvini and Silvio Berlusconi after talks at the presidential palace. Photo: Tiziana Fabi/AFP

Earlier, Italian President Sergio Mattarella tasked Senate speaker Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati with brokering an agreement by Friday between Di Maio's Five Star Movement (M5S) and Salvini's nationalist League party, which leads a right-wing coalition that contains Berlusconi's Forza Italia.

The pair are vying to lead the country out of weeks of political deadlock that has emerged from the inconclusive March 4th general election.

The third round of consultations centres on Di Maio's refusal to deal with Berlusconi, whom the M5S sees as a symbol of political corruption, and the 81-year-old media magnate's distaste for the “anti-democratic” M5S.

After meeting the Senate speaker on Wednesday afternoon, Di Maio dug his heels in, calling Salvini's right-wing grouping “an electoral gimmick” and demanding that he come to the negotiating table alone.

“I expect a definitive response [from Salvini] by the end of the week,” Di Maio told reporters.

“The country can't wait any longer.”

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Di Maio, 31, wants to create a German-style “government contract” with the League.

“The only forces capable of signing this contract and forming a government in these consultations are the M5S and the League,” he added.

Alberti Casellati is an ally of former prime minister Berlusconi, and her election as the first-ever female Senate speaker was part of a pact that aimed to smooth the path to an alliance between the M5S and the League.

They have been battling over who should lead the government since the M5S became Italy's largest single party at the polls with just under 33 percent of the vote and the right picked up 37 percent.

Despite Di Maio's pressure, Salvini has refused to break up the grouping that won the most number of seats in the parliament and has given him a chance of becoming prime minister.

“I don't see respect for the people's vote. The one that came second dictating the rules to the one that came first,” Salvini said.

Di Maio's ultimatum is designed to put pressure on Salvini, who is eyeing elections on April 29th in the northeastern region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, where a League candidate backed by Forza Italia is favourite to win.

It also opens the door to potential future talks with centre-left Democratic Party (PD), who are not involved in this round of consultations after their coalition came third and subsequently refused to deal with either the right or M5S.

Berlusconi on Wednesday assured that he had not vetoed any alliance with the M5S and hinted that there might be a new round of talks with the Senate Speaker on Thursday. 

READ ALSO: Who is Elisabetta Casellati? The woman trying to break Italy's parliamentary deadlock

Who is Elisabetta Casellati? The woman trying to break Italy's parliamentary deadlock
Photo: Andreas Solaro/AFP

2024 EUROPEAN ELECTIONS

From Swexit to Frexit: How Europe’s far-right parties have ditched plans to leave EU

Far-right parties, set to make soaring gains in the European Parliament elections in June, have one by one abandoned plans to get their countries to leave the European Union.

Published: 6 May 2024 13:35 CEST
From Swexit to Frexit: How Europe's far-right parties have ditched plans to leave EU

Whereas plans to leave the bloc took centre stage at the last European polls in 2019, far-right parties have shifted their focus to issues such as immigration as they seek mainstream votes.

“Quickly a lot of far-right parties abandoned their firing positions and their radical discourse aimed at leaving the European Union, even if these parties remain eurosceptic,” Thierry Chopin, a visiting professor at the College of Europe in Bruges told AFP.

Britain, which formally left the EU in early 2020 following the 2016 Brexit referendum, remains the only country to have left so far.

Here is a snapshot:

No Nexit 

The Dutch Freedom Party (PVV) led by Geert Wilders won a stunning victory in Dutch national elections last November and polls indicate it will likely top the European vote in the Netherlands.

While the manifesto for the November election stated clearly: “the PVV wants a binding referendum on Nexit” – the Netherlands leaving the EU – such a pledge is absent from the European manifesto.

For more coverage of the 2024 European Elections click here.

The European manifesto is still fiercely eurosceptic, stressing: “No European superstate for us… we will work hard to change the Union from within.”

The PVV, which failed to win a single seat in 2019 European Parliament elections, called for an end to the “expansion of unelected eurocrats in Brussels” and took aim at a “veritable tsunami” of EU environmental regulations.

No Frexit either

Leaders of France’s National Rally (RN) which is also leading the polls in a challenge to President Emmanuel Macron, have also explicitly dismissed talk they could ape Britain’s departure when unveiling the party manifesto in March.

“Our Macronist opponents accuse us… of being in favour of a Frexit, of wanting to take power so as to leave the EU,” party leader Jordan Bardella said.

But citing EU nations where the RN’s ideological stablemates are scoring political wins or in power, he added: “You don’t leave the table when you’re about to win the game.”

READ ALSO: What’s at stake in the 2024 European parliament elections?

Bardella, 28, who took over the party leadership from Marine Le Pen in 2021, is one of France’s most popular politicians.

The June poll is seen as a key milestone ahead of France’s next presidential election in 2027, when Le Pen, who lead’s RN’s MPs, is expected to mount a fourth bid for the top job.

Dexit, maybe later

The co-leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, Alice Weidel, said in January 2024 that the United Kingdom’s Brexit referendum was an example to follow for the EU’s most populous country.

Weidel said the party, currently Germany’s second most popular, wanted to reform EU institutions to curb the power of the European Commission and address what she saw as a democratic deficit.

But if the changes sought by the AfD could not be realised, “we could have a referendum on ‘Dexit’ – a German exit from the EU”, she said.

The AfD which has recently seen a significant drop in support as it contends with various controversies, had previously downgraded a “Dexit” scenario to a “last resort”.

READ ALSO: ‘Wake-up call’: Far-right parties set to make huge gains in 2024 EU elections

Fixit, Swexit, Polexit…

Elsewhere the eurosceptic Finns Party, which appeals overwhelmingly to male voters, sees “Fixit” as a long-term goal.

The Sweden Democrats (SD) leader Jimmie Åkesson and leading MEP Charlie Weimers said in February in a press op ed that “Sweden is prepared to leave as a last resort”.

Once in favour of a “Swexit”, the party, which props up the government of Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, in 2019 abandoned the idea of leaving the EU due to a lack of public support.

In November 2023 thousands of far-right supporters in the Polish capital Warsaw called for a “Polexit”.

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