Italy’s Government Crisis Is Official Now

Aug. 20, 2019 (EIRNS)—Two paradigms confronted one another in the Italian Senate today, in the persons of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, who announced his resignation, and Lega Party head and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who called for early elections.

Whereas Conte accused Salvini of being disrespectful of “rules,” defended his government choice of changing the European Union from the inside, and pushed Green economy schemes as a vision for the future, Salvini called for a 30-year perspective based on investments in “roads, highways, railroads, schools, hospitals” in order to prevent that, by the year 2050, Italy would lose 6 million active labor force members and 4.5 million emigrants.

Salvini quoted Cicero to say that freedom does not mean to have a better master, but to have no master. Italy has had enough of having to ask for EU permission on every minor decision. He quoted from the American Constitution to claim the right of the population to the pursuit of happiness. He said that the government broke down because the M5S said “No” to everything. “In every country in the world, people are happy if oil is discovered, but the M5S is not.” He added that he rejects their “happy de-growth” ideology.

Responding to Conte, who had accused him of disloyalty, Salvini reminded him that he “never complained to Mrs. Merkel about my government ally”—as Conte had done, which was documented in a bootleg video.

At the end of the Senate debate, which lasted 3.5 hours, Conte went to resign his mandate with State President Sergio Mattarella. According to the Constitution, the President must verify whether there is an alternative majority in Parliament. If this is not the case, he must call for early elections.

According to Corriere della Sera, in the case of early elections, the M5S would collapse to 7-8%. Such data have convinced M5S owner Gianroberto Casaleggio to go for a government alliance with the Democratic Party (PD).

According to some sources, the inventor of the “Ursula government”—a reference to the policy of EU Commission President-elect Ursula von der Leyen—is former EU Commission President Romano Prodi. The question is whether Berlusconi would agree to join it. According to some reports, his Forza Italia is split between senators who want to join and others who want to go to early elections. Berlusconi is watching and waiting.