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New Government Takes Shape in Italy, Sidelining Salvini and the Hard Right New Government Takes Shape in Italy, Sidelining Salvini and the Hard Right
(about 3 hours later)
ROME — Italy’s warring political parties struck a deal on Wednesday night to form a new government that sidelines Matteo Salvini, the hard-right leader who dominated the country’s politics for more than a year and threatened to drastically reorient Italy’s place in Europe. ROME — Italy’s warring political parties struck a deal late Wednesday to form a new government that shunted aside Matteo Salvini, the hard-right leader who dominated the country’s politics for more than a year and threatened to drastically reorient Italy’s place in Europe.
The sudden turnabout in Italy’s politics was a relief to the European establishment after 14 months of euroskeptic provocations, anti-migrant crackdowns and flouting of the bloc’s financial rules. The sudden turnabout in Italy’s politics just a week after the country’s nationalist-populist coalition collapsed was a relief to the European establishment after 14 months of euroskeptic provocations, anti-migrant crackdowns and flouting of the bloc’s financial rules.
The leaders of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement and the center-left Democratic Party, which returns from the opposition, both said on Wednesday that they had struck a deal and agreed that the outgoing prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, should be prime minister again. The leaders of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement and the center-left Democratic Party, which is poised to return from the opposition, both said on Wednesday that they had overcome bitter differences and agreed that the outgoing prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, should be prime minister again.
Mr. Conte will meet with President Sergio Mattarella, who is tasked with guiding the country through a political crisis, early Thursday morning, when he is expected to be formally asked to form a government. Mr. Conte will meet with President Sergio Mattarella, who is responsible with guiding the country through a political crisis, early Thursday morning, when he is expected to be formally handed the mandate to form a government.
But the new coalition, another marriage of convenience between sworn political enemies, may prove no more stable, or less conflict-ridden, than the one it replaces. Since the European Union’s financial crisis of a decade ago, Italy, like other major European countries, has been confronted with the collapse of established political parties that dominated the post-World War II era. Five Star was a catalyst for that implosion, and the Democratic Party its casualty.
It still includes a strong dose of the populism that stoked concerns that Italy, burdened by enormous debt and zero growth, is a precarious political climate for foreign investors and an inhospitable place for its ambitious and talented youth. That history makes the new coalition a marriage of convenience between sworn political enemies, which may prove no more stable, or less conflict-ridden, than the government it is replacing.
The unlikely union of the Five Star Movement and the Democratic Party, vicious foes until just days ago, owed little to shared vision and much to the age-old motivators of Italian politics: revenge, opportunity and shared interests. In Five Star, it still includes a strong dose of the populism that stoked concerns that Italy, burdened by enormous debt and zero growth, is a precarious political climate for foreign investors and an inhospitable place for its ambitious and talented youth.
Most of all, it was born from a remarkable overreach by Italy’s powerful interior minister and by far the most popular politician in the country, Mr. Salvini. The unlikely union of Five Star and the Democratic Party, vicious enemies until just days ago, owed little to shared vision and much to the age-old motivators of Italian politics: revenge, opportunity and shared interests.
Most of all, it was born from a remarkable overreach by Italy’s powerful interior minister, Mr. Salvini.
The leader of the hard-right, anti-migrant League party, Mr. Salvini had sought to consolidate his surging public support by pulling the plug on his coalition with Five Star. He called for early elections and asked Italians to give him full power.The leader of the hard-right, anti-migrant League party, Mr. Salvini had sought to consolidate his surging public support by pulling the plug on his coalition with Five Star. He called for early elections and asked Italians to give him full power.
But elections posed an enormous threat to Five Star, whose support among voters has been cut in half during its 14 months in government with the League. It was a tremendous misstep, as he apparently failed to take into account the possibility that Five Star and the Democratic Party would overcome their reciprocal hatred and join forces inside Parliament to stop him. They did, and he found himself outmaneuvered.
With their power and well-paid government jobs at risk — and their feelings hurt by Mr. Salvini’s betrayal — Five Star leaders instead opened talks with the Democratic Party, which only days earlier they had suggested was the party of Mafiosi, corrupt elites and kidnappers. The prospect of new elections posed an enormous threat to Five Star, whose support among voters has been cut in half during its 14 months in government with the League.
“Today we told the president that there is a political agreement with the Democratic Party,” Luigi Di Maio the political leader of the Five Star Movement said on Wednesday evening. With their power and well-paid government jobs at stake — and their feelings hurt by Mr. Salvini’s betrayal — Five Star leaders instead opened talks with the Democratic Party, which only days earlier they had suggested was the party of Mafiosi, corrupt elites and kidnappers.
“Today we told the president that there is a political agreement with the Democratic Party,” Luigi Di Maio, the Five Star political leader, said on Wednesday evening.
He added that Mr. Salvini had unilaterally “pulled the plug” on their alliance and then, in a last-ditch effort to return to power, had offered Mr. Di Maio the position of prime minister in a new government.He added that Mr. Salvini had unilaterally “pulled the plug” on their alliance and then, in a last-ditch effort to return to power, had offered Mr. Di Maio the position of prime minister in a new government.
Mr. Di Maio said he turned his former coalition partner down. “I thank the League for the offer, with gratitude and sincerity,” he said. Mr. Di Maio said he turned his former coalition partner down. “I thank the League for the offer,” he said. “With gratitude and sincerity.”
The Democratic Party had its own motives for joining Five Star. Those included stopping Mr. Salvini, draining Five Star of their protest appeal and giving their leadership time to build their support before scheduled elections in 2023, or for however long their alliance lasted.
Earlier in the day, Nicola Zingaretti, the leader of the Democratic Party, also informed the Italian president that his party had reached an agreement with Five Star.
“We have accepted the proposal of the Five Star Movement, as they are the relative majority, to name the prime minister,” he said. He rejected the notion that Democrats were merely subbing in for the League and said the new government would mark a major change of direction for Italy.
“We intend to put an end to the season of hatred, rancor and fear,” he said, in a clear poke at Mr. Salvini’s politics.
For some advocates of the European establishment, that was welcomed news.
“Things would surely change for Italy and Europe,” said Stefano Stefanini, Italy’s former representative for NATO, who said that the influence of the Democratic Party would likely bring relations with Brussels, France and Germany, all of which the outgoing Italian government antagonized, “back to normality.”
But the coalition between Italy’s largest center-left establishment party and Five Star, the protest movement born to burn it down, was far from a normal arrangement.
In many ways the new coalition has less in common than did Five Star and the League, which shared a scorn for expertise, the elites and globalization.
“One belongs to the progressive tradition of European parties, pro-European Union, pro-NATO, it has human rights in its DNA, the other is the largest populist party in Western Europe,” said Maurizio Molinari, the editor of the La Stampa newspaper and the author of “Why It Happened Here,” a book about the rise of Italian populism. “Can they live together?”
He said that they could, if the populists traded in some of their burn-down-the-house identity for centrist values, or if the progressives in the Democratic Party took harder lines on issues like income inequality or immigration.
“Italy is again the Continent’s laboratory, and if this experiment succeeds, it sets a precedent for all of Europe,” he said.
And if it collapsed, a bitter Mr. Salvini was waiting.
“Sooner or later the Italians will get their say,” Mr. Salvini said Wednesday night. But the once-feared leader has been reduced to shouting from the sidelines, repeated his usual complaints about Italians being denied their right to vote, bemoaning a conspiracy by his enemies to stop him at all costs and doubting whether the new coalition would even hold.
“Someone tell me in all seriousness,” he said, “whether a Five Star and Democratic Party government is in for the long haul.”
Mr. Conte, previously a little-known law professor who overcame reports of résumé-inflation, is now poised to be a two-time Italian prime minister who is portrayed by his supporters as the face of Italy’s institutions.
Agreeing on him was the key hurdle for the alliance, but it was far from the only one. The two parties had to get past factions within their own ranks to get to a deal.
Five Star proved divided between its realist leaders, who saw the Democratic Party as a slippery life raft, and the party orthodoxy who warned that a deal would prove deadly to the party’s hard-core base.
On Monday, Davide Barillari, a councilman with the Five Star Movement in the Lazio region, implored his leadership: “Don’t do this. For the sake of Italy and its core values.”
To allay the concerns of the Five Star base, Mr. Di Maio late Tuesday night announced that any government proposals would be subject to a vote on Five Star’s internet platform, where all their candidates and policies are approved.
The platform, called Rousseau, is owned by Davide Casaleggio, an unelected web entrepreneur, who has argued that representative democracy is passé and will soon be replaced by the internet. Party dissidents have said he personally decides the outcome of online votes and is the true power behind Five Star.
On Wednesday, Andrea Orlando, the deputy secretary of the Democratic Party, told reporters that it would be “unacceptable if the vote on Rousseau should enter into conflict with the procedures in the Constitution and on the decisions taken by the president.”
But in an interview Wednesday night, Pietro Dettori, a power broker within Five Star who is close to Mr. Casaleggio, said that while the date of a vote still hadn’t been set, it “will also be on the alliance.”