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Luigi Di Maio said hours of talks on Monday had achieved nothing
Italy’s populist Five Star Movement has halted talks on ruling with the centre left, demanding Giuseppe Conte stay on as prime minister.
If Five Star fails to agree a deal with the Democratic Party (PD), President Sergio Mattarella will name a caretaker government and call early elections.
“If [PD] do not say yes to Conte, it is useless,” party leader Luigi Di Maio said. “I am tired of playing games.”
The deadline set by Mr Mattarella has been extended to Wednesday morning.
The two parties have been in discussions since Mr Conte resigned as prime minister in dramatic fashion last week.
His decision came after Matteo Salvini, the leader of the nationalist League party, tabled a no-confidence motion against him.
During his 20 August resignation speech, Mr Conte launched a blistering attack on Mr Salvini, accusing him of being “irresponsible”.
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Mr Salvini’s League party had been in power with the anti-establishment Five Star Movement for 14 months when he effectively ended the coalition, saying he could no longer work with his partners.
Mr Conte, an independent law professor, remains as caretaker leader while talks to form a new government continue.
Why have talks collapsed?
Five Star had been due to resume discussions on forming a new coalition government with the opposition PD at 11:00 (09:00 GMT) on Tuesday.
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Nicola Zingaretti of the centre-left PD party leaves a meeting with President Sergio Mattarella
The talks were cancelled on Tuesday morning by Five Star, which said it was not prepared to continue negotiations with the PD unless the party fully committed to reappointing Mr Conte to lead the new coalition.
“Nothing was achieved,” Five Star said in a statement following hours of talks that went on into the early hours of Tuesday, adding that the attitudes of PD representatives needed to change.
“Time is running out,” the party said, “there is also still a lot to do on contents and programmes”.
On Monday the PD, led by Nicola Zingaretti, appeared to indicate that it had dropped a veto on Mr Conte serving again as prime minister, but had not said explicitly that it would support his reappointment, Italian daily La Repubblica reported.
In a series of tweets, Mr Zingaretti said Monday’s talks were “positive”, but there must be “mutual listening” on both sides to make progress.
“We are working to give Italy a new turning point,” he said, adding: “We don’t want [a new coalition government] to end up like the previous one.”
What are the sticking points?
Aside from who would become prime minister, there are significant differences over policies:
- On Five Star’s key demand of a cut of 345 parliamentarians, the PD may only agree to this in conjunction with broader constitutional reform
- The two parties are also expected to have differences over Italy’s 2020 budget, which will have to comply with EU deficit rules. Italy is the third biggest economy in the eurozone but, at 132%, it has the second biggest debt in proportion to its output.
- The centre left will seek the rollback of many of the League-sponsored immigration measures that brought about the closure of ports to migrants. Although they were pushed forward by Matteo Salvini, Five Star ultimately agreed to them.
If the two parties fail to reach agreement, autumn elections appear likely, with Mr Salvini’s nationalists eyeing victory.
Why had Salvini had enough?
Following weeks of hostility between the two ruling parties, Mr Salvini called for a snap election earlier this month, saying that differences with his Five Star coalition partners could not be mended.
A failed attempt by Five Star to derail plans for a high-speed rail link showed that the coalition could no longer govern, the right wing leader said at the time.
However, addressing the Senate last week, Mr Conte said that Mr Salvini had been “looking for a pretext to return to the polls” since his party’s success in European elections in May.
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The League has soared ahead of Five Star in opinion polls, due mainly to Mr Salvini’s stance against illegal immigration, but has fallen back slightly since pulling the plug on the coalition.
In the May elections, the League came top with 34% of the votes in Italy, whereas Five Star got about 17%.
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Despite this, Mr Di Maio has said his party does not fear another election.
If the Five Star and PD parties agree a new coalition deal before the Wednesday deadline, Mr Salvini’s bid to tighten his League party’s grip on power will have failed.