Biodun.BBC: Matteo Salvini

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Thursday, August 8, 2019

ANALYSIS: What comes next after Italy's ruling coalition breaks down?

August 9, 2019 02H37 GMT/ZULU

by Elodie Bagnol and Biodun Iginla, BBC News and Reuters News Analysts, Rome

ROME - The leader of Italy’s ruling League party, Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, has declared that the governing coalition has broken down after months of internal bickering and that the only way forward is to hold fresh elections.

FILE PHOTO: Italy's Minister of Labor and Industry Luigi Di Maio, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini leave at the end of a news conference after a cabinet meeting at Chigi Palace in Rome, Italy, October 20 2018. REUTERS/Remo Casilli

He said parliament could be convened next week to take the required procedural steps. The League’s coalition partner, the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, accused Salvini of “taking the country for a ride” and said it was ready for elections.

IS THE GOVERNMENT OVER?

Not yet. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte will have to go before parliament and call for a vote of confidence in his government. If he loses the make-or-break vote, then he has to resign. If he does not, he can carry on. Alternatively, he could resign without waiting for a confidence vote.

IS ITALY GOING TO EARLY ELECTIONS?

Early elections are likely but not certain. Only the head of state, President Sergio Mattarella, has the power to dissolve parliament. He will call a snap vote only if it proves impossible to form a new government. By convention, Mattarella has to consult with the presidents of the lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, and the Senate as well as with all the main parliamentary party leaders before dissolving parliament.

CAN A NEW GOVERNMENT EMERGE WITHOUT ELECTIONS?

Yes, but it will be difficult to find a new coalition. One possibility could be a combination of the anti-establishment 5-Star party and the opposition Democratic Party (PD). Together they could muster a one-seat majority but would likely need help from smaller parliamentary groups or life senators to ensure stability. But several MPs from both 5-Star and PD have opposed the idea in the past. These include former PD leader Matteo Renzi who still wields strong influence over his party.

WHEN WOULD FRESH ELECTIONS BE HELD?

It depends on when the parliament is convened for a vote of confidence and how long it takes to explore other coalition options. Mattarella has made it clear that he wants a government in place to approve the 2020 budget in the autumn, which means elections must be held by October or wait until next year.

If elections are not held by October and no alternative coalition is formed by the autumn, the president could try to install a stopgap administration of technocrats, though this would still need to secure the confidence of parliament.

Italy has never held elections in autumn since World War II. It has had several “technocrat” governments in the last 25 years.

WHAT WOULD BE THE LIKELY OUTCOME OF A NEW VOTE?

Since last year’s national elections, when 5-Star won the biggest share of the vote, the League has doubled in popularity according to opinion polls. It now commands 34-39% of the vote, according to the polls, suggesting it would easily be the largest party. Should it miss out on an absolute majority of seats, Salvini could call on its former centre-right allies of Forza Italia and Fratelli d’Italia to form a new government.

ANALYSIS AND BREAKING: Salvini pulls support for Italian coalition, calls for snap election

Date created : 08/09/2019 - 01:05 GMT/ZULU

Andreas Solaro, AFP | Italy's Interior Minister and deputy PM Matteo Salvini gives a press conference as part of a meeting with the workers' unions at the Viminale palace in Rome, on July 15, 2019.

by Elodie Bagnol and Biodun Iginla, France24 News Analysts, Rome

Italy faced a government crisis Thursday as Interior Minister Matteo Salvini of the right-wing League party called for a new election, saying his party’s coalition with the populist 5-Star Movement had collapsed over policy differences.

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Salvini urged Italy’s premier to verify whether the coalition still had a governing majority in parliament.

The ruling two parties have been at odds recently over a host of policy issues but tensions spiraled Wednesday after the Senate rejected a move by the 5-Stars to kill a EU-funded high-speed rail link with neighboring France. The massive infrastructure project known in Italy as TAV was backed by the League and sought to improve rail links across several European nations.

As tones hardened, Salvini met with Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte on Thursday. After the meeting, Salvini issued a statement saying the TAV vote clearly showed that the ruling coalition had collapsed and called for a speedy election.

“Let’s go immediately to the Parliament and verify that there is no longer a majority, as was evident in the vote on the TAV, and quickly return the word to voters,” Salvini said.

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Conte was expected to seek a confidence vote in Parliament and if the government lost, that would set the stage for a new election.

It was unclear when that might happen, as parliament has adjourned for its summer break and would need to be recalled. In the case of a no-confidence vote, it is up to Italy’s president to call a new election.

'5-Star party ready for election'

The 5-Star leader, Luigi Di Maio, responded to Salvini’s statement by saying his populist party was ready to go to a new election. But he sought to put it off, saying an election should not happen until after parliament gave its final approval to a reform reducing the number of lawmakers, a vote scheduled for early September.

Earlier Thursday, the right-wing League issued a statement complaining of deadlock with the 5-Star Movement on a variety of issues, saying “it is useless to go on” adding that “the only alternative to this government” is for a new election.

The high-speed train vote laid bare the deep divisions in the Italy’s 14 ½-month-old government, with the 5-Stars opposing the rail link as costly and unnecessary and the League supporting it as necessary for the economy and its core base of northern entrepreneurs.

After the vote, Salvini told supporters in the coastal town of Sabaudia “that something broke in the last months” in the governing coalition.

Besides the high-speed rail-link, the League listed other areas of contention between the two parties, including fiscal policies, energy, justice reform, regional autonomy and relations with Europe.

In his comments Wednesday, Salvini noted that the 5-Star’s pet electoral promise, basic income, which the government passed, was a handout that did not create jobs.

Salvini is coming off another victory this week with the passage of a new security law that fines humanitarian rescue ships up to 1 million euros ($1.1 million) if they enter Italian waters with migrants. Preventing such ships from docking has been Salvini’s main goal as interior minister.

Saturday, July 27, 2019

BREAKING: Two US teenagers arrested over killing of Italian police officer

Date created : 28/07/2019 - 06:38 GMT/ZULU

Italian carabinieri tracked down the suspects using footage from surveillance cameras AFP

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Rome

by Elodie Bagnol and Biodun Iginla, France24

Two US teenagers appeared at a court hearing in Rome on Saturday after being arrested over the murder of an Italian police officer whose death has sparked a national outcry.

Officer Mario Rega Cerciello died after being stabbed eight times as he and a colleague tried to arrest two men following a complaint for theft. Cerciello, 35, had only recently returned from his honeymoon.

His killing took on a political aspect when the country's far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, responding to initial reports that the suspects were North African, denounced the killers as "bastards".

Police said they arrested the two American teens on Friday as they were preparing to check out of their Rome hotel and fly home.

Prosecutors have charged them over the killing, which occurred in the small hours of Friday morning in Rome's city centre.

Media reports citing the police have named the two suspects as Christian Gabriel Natale Hjorth and Elder Finnegan Lee, both aged 19.

One of them has confessed to the killing but said that he did not realise that Cerciello was a police officer because both the officers involved were in plain clothes, according to Italian media reports, citing the police.

The incident happened in an up-market neighbourhood near Vatican City.

A statement from Italian police said that the two Americans had confessed to stealing a bag from an Italian. They were demanding 100 euros ($111) and a gramme of cocaine for its return.

The victim of the theft tipped off the police, but when the two officers went to arrest the pair, one of them pulled a knife.

Italian media reports, citing investigators, said that the two US teenagers told police that the man they had stolen from had sold them aspirin powder instead of cocaine.

The suspect who confessed to stabbing Cerciello said he had taken the officers for friends of the alleged dealer and had panicked.

Police said surveillance cameras helped them track the pair to their four-star hotel where they arrested them. Their bags were packed and they had been planning to fly home that same evening.

- Floral tributes -

Officers found a large knife hidden in the false ceiling of their hotel room and seized clothing that the pair were thought to have been wearing on the night of the murder.

Prosecutors in Rome are holding them on suspicion of aggravated homicide and attempted extortion.

The American who confessed to killing remained silent during a court hearing in front of a judge on Saturday afternoon, his lawyer told local media.

The killing has made front-page headlines in Italy. Many people have left floral tributes left at the spot where Cerciello died.

On Friday, Salvini called for "hard labour for life ... for these bastards" amid early reports that the suspects were North African. "The suspects were filmed by surveillance cameras, they will not evade us," he said.

Cerciello is to be buried on Monday in his home town at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, southern Italy.

A spokesman for the US State Department said: "We are aware of these reports. When a US citizen is detained overseas, the Department works to provide all appropriate consular assistance."