Salvini’s League Isolated Over Failed Deal to Back von der Leyen

(Bloomberg) -- Matteo Salvini’s League party is becoming isolated in Italy’s ruling coalition after it backed out of an agreement to support Ursula von der Leyen as European Commission President, leading some lawmakers to question its right to dictate a key appointment in Brussels.

The deputy premier and Italy’s most popular politician had struck a deal with coalition partner Luigi Di Maio of the Five Star Movement to back von der Leyen’s nomination, daily La Stampa reported Thursday. Salvini then pulled out after failing to receive a promise that one of his closest allies would receive a top European job.

Five Star backed von der Leyen “because she said she would do an EU minimum salary, review Dublin rules on migration, and review some austerity rules,” Di Maio said in a Facebook video. The Dublin rules oblige asylum-seekers to make their demand in the European Union country of arrival.

Salvini’s pick, his senior adviser and cabinet secretary Giancarlo Giorgetti, is now in doubt, with Five Star questioning whether the League leader should even have first say over Italy’s candidate for a yet-to-be-determined post on the commission. Other possible candidates are the League’s Giulia Bongiorno, minister for public administration, and Foreign Minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi.

Von der Leyen may be reluctant to accept a candidate from a party that voted against her nomination, and will be even more reticent given the ongoing “Russiagate” scandal involving the League, Il Messaggero reported, citing diplomatic sources.

The clash over von der Leyen’s election is the latest in a string of skirmishes between Italy’s coalition partners that have escalated since the League became the country’s biggest party following May’s European parliamentary vote. Both Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and Five Star lawmakers threw their weight behind von der Leyen.

‘National Interests’

The League’s vote against von der Leyen affects negotiations for the commissioner post, Conte wrote in newspaper la Repubblica. “This is not about claiming a job for a single political force,” he wrote. “This is about defending national interests and demanding for Italy a prestigious post that it deserves.”

Salvini countered in a tweet: “It could have been the time for a historic change in Europe. “How can you vote with Renzi, Merkel and Macron?”

Conte and Five Star have been scrutinizing Salvini’s every move in recent days, as a window for the League leader to trigger early elections is set to close on July 20. Salvini would probably have to provoke a government crisis before then for early elections to be held in time for a new administration to be in place in time to tackle the 2020 budget in the fall.

“I don’t believe in any window and I don’t believe it’s closing in two or three days,” Salvini said in an interview with Italian newspapers on Thursday. “Ten? Not even that. It’s not that tight.”

The League leader also has no guarantee that President Sergio Mattarella would call early elections even if the government did fall. The head of state would first determine whether an alternative majority is possible, with possible scenarios including a coalition of Five Star and the center-left Democratic Party, although both parties have ruled this out.

--With assistance from Alessandro Speciale.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jerrold Colten in Milan at jcolten@bloomberg.net;John Follain in Rome at jfollain2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Chad Thomas at cthomas16@bloomberg.net, Ross Larsen, Dan Liefgreen

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