Giuseppe Conte has been appointed Prime Minister by Italian President Sergio Mattarella. The next step is the formation of the government that will reflect the balance of strength between the 5-star Movement and the League.
Several remarks
1 – Conte is the lowest common denominator between the two parties of the coalition. He will not have much room for maneuver.
2 – Salvini the leader of the League wants the Ministry of the Interior to put in place a strong policy vis-à-vis the refugees. Di Maio wants the Ministry of Labor. Such a distribution must be part of the deal. Only Mattarella could refuse such a division of roles.
3 – The important point will be the appointment of the Minister of Finance. Here we must avoid Paolo Salvona, a member of the League and a strong opponent of the Euro and the European institutions.
4 – It will also be necessary to look more closely at the political dimension of the program implemented. This could be a source of dissension with other European countries. I am thinking in particular of the refugee issue but also of the friendship that the coalition wants to develop with Russia and by positioning itself against the sanctions taken. These elements are not surprising of a populist party but they generate a risk within the Union beyond the economic risk.
5 – Once the government has been validated by President Mattarella, the next step will be the general policy statement that will set the scene by defining the framework within which this coalition government will act. Let’s not imagine a consensual program at European level.
6 – The specificity of the Italian situation validates the widening of the spread between Italy and Germany but not that of Spain or Portugal. The crisis is Italian and reflects the inconsistencies of the past political balance. The immobility of the past is dramatic.