Italy waits for Salvini’s decision on snap vote

Bloomberg

Pressured by his closest advisers to force a snap election, Matteo Salvini is hesitating. The usually hyper-active deputy premier is keeping the country waiting as he considers whether to take his biggest political gamble yet and pull out of Italy’s fractious populist coalition.
The leader of the rightist League is looking to capitalise on his victory in May’s European parliamentary vote, banking on early general elections in the fall as the best way to deliver him the premier’s job.
After months of skirmishes with coalition partner and rival Luigi Di Maio of the Five Star Movement, Salvini has never been so close to bringing the government down, according to a senior adviser, who asked not to be named discussing confidential deliberations. Most of Salvini’s lieutenants want an early vote, the adviser said.
Salvini has denounced Five Star for backing Ursula von der Leyen as new European Commission president and for blocking his priority reforms including tax cuts and stronger powers for regions in his northern stronghold.
The League leader skipped both a cabinet meeting and government talks on regional autonomy.
But Salvini also stuck to his usual script in saying that he’ll continue with the coalition if his favoured measures are enacted into law.
“We’re working on projects and on things which have to be done, not on jobs for the boys,” Salvini said, after news wire Ansa cited unidentified lawmakers as saying that a cabinet reshuffle could avert a full government collapse.
Salvini said that he’ll “certainly” meet with Di Maio, who called for the two party leaders to sit down together and talk.
“The problem isn’t Di Maio,” Salvini said, “But the policy of ‘no,’ and many people within Five Star blocking things.”
One person Salvini is keeping in the dark: President Sergio Mattarella, who wants any new government to be in place by October, ready to deal with the 2020 budget, according to an official who asked not to named discussing confidential plans. If Mattarella meets with Salvini next week, it could signal that the government is coming to an end, said the official.
If Salvini does go for broke, the race to prepare next year’s budget will be a tight one — with the European Commission pressuring Italy to reduce its debt.
From the moment parliament is dissolved, some 60 to 70 days would have to pass before the actual vote, meaning that an election can’t be held before September.
Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte will speak on the Russia case in parliament on July 24.