Italy's Salvini pulls plug on government, calls for elections

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

WORLD NEWS AUGUST 8, 2019 / 10:11 AM / UPDATED AN HOUR AGO

Italy's Salvini pulls plug on government, calls for elections

Giuseppe Fonte, Gavin Jones
5 MIN READ

ROME (Reuters) - The leader of Italy’s ruling League party, Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, declared the governing coalition to be unworkable on Thursday after months of internal bickering and said the only way forward was to hold fresh elections.

The shock announcement follows a period of intense public feuding between the right-wing League and its coalition partner, the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, and it throws the euro zone’s third-largest economy into deeper political uncertainty.

Salvini said in a statement he had told Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, who belongs to neither coalition party, that the alliance with 5-Star had collapsed after barely a year in power and “we should quickly give the choice back to the voters”.

Parliament, which is now in its summer recess, could reconvene next week to carry out the necessary steps, Salvini said, referring to the need for a no-confidence vote in the government and the resignation of the premier.

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Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-politics/italys-salvini-says-government-is-finished-wants-elections-idUSKCN1UY1U8

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1. Italy's Most Powerful Populist Rules From the Beach.

SABAUDIA, Italy — Like a nationalist gone wild, Matteo Salvini took off his shirt, picked up his mojito and partied with Spring Break abandon.

In the D.J. booth of the Papeete Beach club on the Adriatic coast, Mr. Salvini, Italy’s interior minister, spun Italian rap music and joked with his boys as strutting go-go dancers in skimpy leopard skin bathing suits solemnly put their hands on their hearts during the playing of the national anthem. He blew kisses as fans chanted his name as if it were the song of the summer.

For much of August, Mr. Salvini, 46, a populist Everyman with a talent for expressing Italy’s id, whether he’s scarfing down Nutella or locking out migrants, has moved the seat of Italian government to the beach chair. After weeks of a highly visible vacation in Milano Marittima, Mr. Salvini, was rested and ready to force a government crisis that could make him prime minister.

“Like in a marriage, when you spend more time arguing than getting along and making love, it’s better to look each other in the eye and make the choice that two adults should make,” Mr. Salvini said at a political rally in the beach town of Sabaudia Wednesday night, noting that, as a divorcee, he had experience in the subject.'>>>

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/08/world/europe/matteo-salvini-italy-beach.html