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Salvini Fuels New Clash as Humbled Ally Seeks Online Blessing

Italy: Tussel between the Deputy Prime Minister and Deputy Infrastructure Minister

Salvini Fuels New Clash as Humbled Ally Seeks Online Blessing
Matteo Salvini, Italy’s deputy prime minister and leader of the League. (Photographer: Francesca Volpi/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- Italian Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini is gearing up for a new confrontation with his weakened coalition ally even as its leader, Luigi Di Maio, said he’ll submit to an online vote on his future role with the party.

Salvini, riding high after his League emerged as Italy’s strongest party in European elections over the weekend, has signaled that he won’t back down in the tussle over a corruption case involving a League official.

Salvini Fuels New Clash as Humbled Ally Seeks Online Blessing

Di Maio, meanwhile, is fighting for his political life as members of the Five Star Movement and lawmakers line up to blame him for the electoral debacle. The anti-establishment party’s vote was cut in half compared with the 32% it scored in national elections last year.

While the League and Five Star have made a habit of bickering over policy priorities in just under a year together in government, the tussle over Deputy Infrastructure Minister Edoardo Rixi, among the politicians linked to a probe dubbed “Crazy Expenses,” is the first clash between the two sides since Salvini lapped the field in the European vote.

Clean-Up Campaign

Salvini’s rightist League wants Rixi to keep his job whatever the verdict, while Five Star, which has long campaigned to clean up Italian politics, has repeatedly called for his dismissal if convicted.

“I’ll do what I’m told,” Rixi said in an interview Tuesday at the lower house of parliament in Rome. “If I’m useful I stay, if I’m not useful I don’t stay. The real issue is that you cannot manipulate judicial investigations in this way,” he said, in a shot at Five Star. Rixi denied any wrongdoing, and the League has backed him throughout.

Di Maio says Rixi must step down if found guilty in the case involving politicians allegedly paying for dinners and trips using funds from the regional government of Liguria.

The Rixi case echoes the battle over an economic adviser to Salvini earlier this month. Five Star won that time around and Salvini suffered his worst political defeat so far, as Di Maio’s party persuaded Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte to oust the adviser implicated in a probe.

Budget Standoff

Fresh tension between the two coalition partners is likely to keep financial markets on edge as the government and European Union face a renewed budget standoff. Di Maio’s decision to hold an online referendum on his leadership came as a host of party lawmakers came out publicly to blame him for the defeat.

Salvini Fuels New Clash as Humbled Ally Seeks Online Blessing

Di Maio was quick to defend his record. “I’d promised everyone that I would lead the Movement into government as premiership-candidate, and we succeeded,” he wrote on the party blog.

“We’ve done good things in government, but we’re turning into suits and ties,” Gianluigi Paragone, a senior Five Star senator, told Corriere della Sera on Wednesday. “We need strong leadership,” he said, adding that “Di Maio can’t keep two ministries.”

In addition to his duties as party leader and deputy premier, Di Maio also runs the economic development and labor ministries. Paragone, speaking in an interview with Rai television, said he will offer his resignation from parliament to Di Maio.

Stefano Buffagni, a Five Star undersecretary, challenged the League to say whether it wants to force the coalition to collapse. He said the contract the two allies signed before the government was formed a year ago was clear about Rixi’s fate if convicted.

“If our allies don’t want to respect the government contract and want to break it, then let them say so clearly and they will take responsibility for that,” Buffagni told reporters in Milan on Tuesday.

To contact the reporter on this story: John Follain in Rome at jfollain2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Jerrold Colten, Andrew Blackman

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