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POLITICS

Italy set for caretaker government if last-ditch talks fail

President Sergio Mattarella will try once again on Monday to broker an agreement to form a viable government two months after Italy's inconclusive elections, following threats to name a team of technocrats instead.

Published: 7 May 2018 09:07 CEST
Italy set for caretaker government if last-ditch talks fail
Journalists waiting at the presidential palace, where talks to form Italy's new government are ongoing. Photo: Fabio Frustaci/AFP

The March 4th polls left a right-wing coalition led by the far-right League party in the driver's seat with 37 percent of the vote.

Seeking to ward off the prospect of a caretaker cabinet, League leader Matteo Salvini on Friday proposed going into a temporary government with the second-placed Five Star Movement (M5S) until December. This would give parliament time to pass a new electoral reform and adopt next year's budget for the eurozone's third-largest economy. He said fresh elections could then be held early next year.

The anti-establishment M5S, led by Luigi Di Maio, garnered 32 percent in the election, while the leftist Democratic Party won 19 percent.

The three parties will be first in line to speak to Mattarella, followed by smaller parties and the two speakers of parliament.

Di Maio said Sunday that he would forgo the premiership as a gesture to the League.

“If we really have to shake things up… I say to Salvini, 'Let's pick a head of government together',” Di Maio said on a TV talk show.

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Silvio Berlusconi, Matteo Salvini and Luigi Di Maio depicted as Caravaggio's Cardsharps in Rome graffiti. Photo: Fanny Carrier/AFP

But the League, whose coalition includes Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, remains at loggerheads with M5S over the flamboyant former prime minister's possible role. Di Maio has demanded that Salvini dump the 81-year-old media magnate, whom the M5S regards as the symbol of political corruption, but Salvini insists he will not break up a coalition.

Officials of the right-wing coalition met Sunday evening in Rome to hammer out a joint strategy.

Several have demanded that Mattarella designate Salvini as prime minister and allow him to find the few dozen MPs needed from smaller parties to form a majority in parliament. But press reports say Mattarella wants guarantees.

He is expected to name a caretaker government, similar to that of economist Mario Monti from 2011 to 2013, that would restore Italy's role on the world stage and run the country at least until the 2019 budget is passed. He is thought to be looking for a neutral but competent figure, perhaps a woman, with press speculation running wild.

But both the League and M5S are dead set against such an alternative, with Di Maio saying he would support fresh elections as soon as June or July.

Lina Palmerini, analyst at the business daily Il Sole 24 Ore, said Mattarella has few options, warning: “If parliament rejects the president's government, the situation will be very difficult.”

Pollster Lorenzo Pregliasco said voter surveys suggested new elections would not change the balance of forces. “No one will win a majority.” 

READ ALSO: The Local's introductory guide to Italian politics

By Fanny Carrier

 

POLITICS

‘Worrying developments’: NGOs warn of growing pressure on Italian media freedom

Media freedom in Italy has come increasingly under pressure since Giorgia Meloni's hard-right government took office, a group of European NGOs warned on Friday following an urgent fact-finding summit.

Published: 17 May 2024 17:40 CEST
‘Worrying developments’: NGOs warn of growing pressure on Italian media freedom

They highlighted among their concerns the continued criminalisation of defamation – a law Meloni herself has used against a high-profile journalist – and the proposed takeover of a major news agency by a right-wing MP.

The two-day mission, led by the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), was planned for the autumn but brought forward due to “worrying developments”, Andreas Lamm of the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) told a press conference.

The ECPMF’s monitoring project, which records incidents affecting media freedom such as legal action, editorial interference and physical attacks, recorded a spike in Italy’s numbers from 46 in 2022 to 80 in 2023.

There have been 49 so far this year.

Meloni, the leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party, took office as head of a hard-right coalition government in October 2022.

A key concern of the NGOs is the increased political influence over the RAI public broadcaster, which triggered a strike by its journalists this month.

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

“We know RAI was always politicised…but now we are at another level,” said Renate Schroeder, director of the Brussels-based EFJ.

The NGO representatives – who will write up a formal report in the coming weeks – recommended the appointment of fully independent directors to RAI, among other measures.

They also raised concerns about the failure of repeated Italian governments to decriminalise defamation, despite calls for reform by the country’s Constitutional Court.

Meloni herself successfully sued journalist Roberto Saviano last year for criticising her attitude to migrants.

“In a European democracy a prime minister does not respond to criticism by legally intimidating writers like Saviano,” said David Diaz-Jogeix of London-based Article 19.

He said that a proposed reform being debated in parliament, which would replace imprisonment with fines of up to 50,000 euros, “does not meet the bare minimum of international and European standards of freedom of expression”.

The experts also warned about the mooted takeover of the AGI news agency by a group owned by a member of parliament with Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini’s far-right League party – a proposal that also triggered journalist strikes.

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

Beatrice Chioccioli of the International Press Institute said it posed a “significant risk for the editorial independence” of the agency.

The so-called Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) consortium expressed disappointment that no member of Meloni’s coalition responded to requests to meet with them.

They said that, as things stand, Italy is likely to be in breach of a new EU media freedom law, introduced partly because of fears of deteriorating standards in countries such as Hungary and Poland.

Schroeder said next month’s European Parliament elections could be a “turning point”, warning that an increase in power of the far-right across the bloc “will have an influence also on media freedom”.

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