Italian Populists Clash on Family Values as Conte Slams Salvini

(Bloomberg) -- Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte slammed his deputy Matteo Salvini, leader of the League, signaling tensions remain high within the populist coalition.

The latest clash between the Five Star Movement and the League emerged over the weekend after Salvini attended a conservative congress on family values in Verona which was dubbed “medieval” by Deputy Premier Luigi Di Maio, head of Five Star.

At the event Salvini also attacked a Five Star minister for not doing enough to speed up adoption procedures, which drew a harsh response from Conte. Officials should “study and work every day in their ministries before making statements which could be confusing,” according to a late-Saturday statement by the prime minister’s office.

Conte’s intervention against Salvini opens a new front as the 54-year-old premier is usually seen a mediator between Salvini and Di Maio. Conte has spent much of his time negotiating policy disputes between his two deputy premiers. They have clashed on issues ranging from immigration to the TAV high-speed rail link between Turin and Lyon.

The latest verbal battle between Di Maio and Salvini comes less than two months before European elections in which the League is set to emerge as the country’s biggest party, surpassing Five Star, according to the latest polls. A series of victories for the center-right movement in regional elections have triggered speculation that Salvini could seek to force early elections to claim the prime minister’s post. Salvini has repeatedly denied he would do this, insisting he will stick with Five Star for the whole term of the current Rome-based parliament.

--With assistance from John Follain.

To contact the reporter on this story: Tommaso Ebhardt in Milan at tebhardt@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Chad Thomas at cthomas16@bloomberg.net, John J. Edwards III, James Amott

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