Italy’s Conte Vows to Hold It Together as Coalition Rifts Deepen
Five Star to Contest Elections Alone as Conte Sees No Threat
(Bloomberg) -- Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said his government can ride out a growing split between its main coalition partners.
Conte insisted the alliance won’t be damaged by the Five Star Movement’s decision to run against the Democratic Party in regional elections in January. The partners suffered heavy losses when they ran on a joint ticket in Umbria last month, triggering recriminations among Five Star lawmakers.
The premier told reporters in Rome on Thursday night that the decision would “absolutely not” damage his already fragile coalition, Ansa news agency reported.
The governing parties are trying to hold their alliance together to fend off the threat of Matteo Salvini and his populist group, the League. Opinion polls show that Salvini would be the clear winner if the coalition collapsed, triggering a snap election, with Five Star set to lose almost half the votes it won in last year’s ballot.
Read More: Salvini Leads By 13 Points in Polls
The League’s resounding victory in Umbria prompted many Five Star lawmakers to insist the party return to its roots and run independently in any future votes, even if it meant effectively competing with its coalition partner. The party’s leadership even suggest to skip altogether the January votes, but members rejected the idea in an online poll.
The country’s 2020 budget has highighted the divisions within the coalition. A brewing crisis over the possible closure of a steel mill in the south of the country, with the loss of thousands of jobs in a Five Star stronghold, has exacerbated the tensions.
Five Star, which regularly submits policy questions to its members in online referendums, voted this week to contest the Emilia Romagna and Calabria elections without the Democrats. About 27,000 party members took part in the referendum, according to Ansa.
--With assistance from Giovanni Salzano, John Follain and Ross Larsen.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jerrold Colten in Milan at jcolten@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Chad Thomas at cthomas16@bloomberg.net, Ben Sills, Alessandro Speciale
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