Di Maio Sees Italy Goverment Going Ahead in 2020 With New Agenda

(Bloomberg) -- Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio dismissed risk of a goverment crisis and new elections in 2020 after weeks of dispute inside the ruling coalition.

“From January we will start again with a new agenda and a new schedule,” for the government, Di Maio told Italian daily La Repubblica in an interview. “This goverment should go ahead without polemics.”

Di Maio’s comments came as a referendum set to take place in Italy next year has alarmed markets and raised the possibility the country could move to early elections, as politicians weigh their chances at a vote before the number of parliamentary seats is reduced.

The government, the second to be led by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, has bickered internally and threatened to bring the country to new elections ever since it took power in September.

After the defection of three senators earlier this month, Italy’s ruling coalition has faced a period of heightened instability as some lawmakers warned that more exits could be coming.

League leader Matteo Salvini, who is far ahead in the polls and is seeking an election next year, is holding a congress of his party in Milan on Saturday. “We have the ambition to revamp Italy,” he told supporters at the beginning of the meeting, Ansa reported.

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, Tommaso Ebhardt, Guy Collins

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