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Making Italy Great Again! Berlusconi says the euroskeptic populist 5-Star Movement is “more dangerous than communists.”
ROME (AP) — The leader of Italy’s euroskeptic 5-Star Movement asked Monday for more time to hammer out a coalition agreement with the head of a rival populist party and said he wants his voter base to have a say in any deal before a government is formed. ...
“We asked the president for more time to make a contract for government,” Di Maio told reporters after the talks at the Quirinal Palace. He added that the terms of any deal with the League “will be put to our members through a vote online,” indicating the process of forming the next government might stretch out even longer. The Movement, which bills itself as an alternative to traditional politics, makes its positions and candidates subject to review by registered supporters in online votes. The coalition negotiations are aimed at “giving a government of change to this country,” Di Maio said. He described that as a government in which “the citizens take a step forward, the politicians take a step back.” ...
Success in forging a coalition would put the 5-Stars in Italy’s national government for the first time. It would also be Italy’s first all-populist government and assume power at a time when nationalist sentiment is gaining traction across much of Europe. The forerunner of Salvini’s League, the Northern League, was the main partner in the three center-right governments headed by former Premier Silvio Berlusconi starting in 1994. The 5-Star Movement, which bills itself as an anti-establishment force, became the Italian Parliament’s largest party, winning some 32 percent of the vote in the March 4 election. But the biggest single bloc is a center-right alliance of Salvini’s League and Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party that garnered 37 percent of the vote. After Berlusconi refused to have anything to do with the 5-Stars, who he regards as “more dangerous than communists,” Salvini and Di Maio set out to negotiate an agreement to join forces in government.
https://apnews.com/67ff26736fe7479891c76d0695dabf22/Populist-leader-seeks-more-time-to-form-Italy's-government