As Italy heads toward a March general election, the two major right-wing parties —Silvio Berlusconi‘s Forza Italia and Matteo Salvini’s Northern League — hope to join forces in a coalition to maximize their chances of winning individual constituencies, which have taken on more importance since the introduction of a new electoral law, and taking power from Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni’s Democratic Party (PD).
The deal is almost done, but there is one small detail stalling the negotiations: The charismatic 44-year-old leader of the Northern League fears that the rejuvenated 81-year-old Berlusconi is already eying up the PD. To avoid this scenario, Salvini wants the three-time premier to put his commitment to the coalition deal in writing — which Berlusconi has so far refused to do.
With the Italian political landscape highly fragmented, and dire predictions of ungovernability abounding, the current front-runners in the opinion polls are the anti-establishment 5Star Movement (currently polling at 29 percent) and just one point behind them — the PD, which is still run by Gentiloni’s hyperactive predecessor as premier, Matteo Renzi. However, neither party appears to have a realistic chance of reaching the 40 percent level of support needed to establish a governing majority and the 5Stars have diagnosed themselves as allergic to coalitions of any sort. [...]
Under Salvini’s leadership, the League has gained popularity by moving further to the right and is considering dropping “Northern” from its name to reflect its geographical spread. The party now occupies a roughly similar space to Marine Le Pen’s National Front in France.
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