Leaked reports suggest that Italy’s interior minister Matteo Salvini has requested his fellow League party members to skip their holidays to ready themselves for a coalition crisis and possible snap elections.
According to a report by Italy’s daily newspaper Il Giornale, this week, following a conflicting vote between coalition partners the League and Five Star Movement (M5S) on the TAV train tunnel project, Salvini sent messages through WhatsApp instructing League members, “don’t go away for the holidays”.
To pass the pro-TAV motions, the League voted alongside the leftist Democratic Party (PD) and other parties, while 107 M5S lawmakers voted against the motions.
Before the motion’s vote, League Senator Massimiliano Romeo warned members of M5S, “Whoever votes against the TAV takes responsibility for the consequences that will be in the coming days.”
Immediately after the vote, the Democratic Party deemed it necessary for Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte to meet with President Sergio Mattarella to call for snap elections, insisting that the vote revealed that there was no longer majority coalition present in parliament.
Other parties including former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his Forza Italia party agreed that new elections should indeed be held.
Berlusconi referred to the actions of M5S as “disappointing” and urged Salvini to officially put an end to the populist coalition government.
“Interrupting this failed experience is, therefore, a gesture of responsibility on the part of Matteo Salvini towards the Italians,” the Italian media tycoon and former PM said.
Berlusconi then added, “Forza Italia believes that the best solution for the country is new elections.”
Italy’s populist coalition has had a rocky road since forming a government in 2018. The rightist League and left-leaning M5S have often been at odds with one another throughout their time in government.
Some believed that the coalition wouldn’t make it past July.
In the scenario that snap elections do occur, and it’s looking more and more like they will, Salvini’s League party could see fantastic results with recent polls showing the party trending toward 40 percent of the national vote.
They may even be able to form a national majority by themselves.
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