Next? Mattarella appoints ex-IMF official Cottarelli as Italy's interim PM charged with forming govt

RT
Mon, 28 May 2018 10:42 UTC

© Reutersmedia

Italian President Sergio Mattarella • IMF official Carlo Cottarelli

Italian President Sergio Mattarella has appointed IMF official Carlo Cottarelli as the interim prime minister tasked with forming a new government. The PM said elections will be held no later than August unless he wins the confidence of parliament.

President Mattarella announced his choice Monday, having diluted the deal between two Eurosceptic parties who had collective majority in the March elections and had since dedicated themselves to forming a new government.

The newly-appointed PM Cottarelli vowed to establish a new government "very quickly" to take the country through this period before fresh elections are held in the fall of 2018 or early next year.

"I'll present myself to parliament with a program which - if it wins the backing of parliament - would include the approval of the 2019 budget. Then parliament would be dissolved with elections at the beginning of 2019," Cottarelli said shortly after being named interim prime minister.

Following the rejection of Paolo Savona's candidacy for minister of economy, ex PM-designate Conte said he had given up on attempts to form a government, leaving open the possibility the country would face new elections. Furious with Mattarella for sabotaging their deal over the choice for economy minister, the eurosceptic coalition slammed the country's establishment for jeopardising democracy.

Italian journalist Marcello Foa believes that Mattarella's move could be easily defined as illegitimate as "there is no constitutional reason and no constitutional power to block a government that has the majority in parliament." Foa blasted the decision as "really shocking," as it's becoming quite obvious that the president is not acting in Italy's best interests, but rather in the interests of the EU which he does not wish to "disturb."

Lorenzo Pregliasco, professor of political science at the University of Bologna, echoed those sentiments, saying that the president's decision to veto Savona's appointment were dictated by his views on the European Union.

"The potential minister of economy has quite strong credentials," he said. "He was a professor as well as minister in the early 1990s in another government." Meanwhile, in an attempt to dispel rumors and clarify his views, Savona issued a statement where he said he stood for "a different Europe, stronger, but more equal."

Comment: It appears Mattarella has hijacked the process of forming a new Italian government and has alienated the ruling coalition.

More from RT:

Manlio Di Stefano, an MP from the anti-establishment Five-Star Movement (M5S), which has teamed up with Lega Nord in a parliament, argued that it was Mattarella's fault that Sunday did not bring a much-desired end to the two-month long post-election stalemate.

"You can be a problem if you have a trial, you can be a problem if you've been found guilty for something, but not because you have some good ideas, or, any idea in a political sense. There is a constitution defending political ideas and opinions. The incredible thing is that President Mattarella has not only stopped this government, but is trying to force the government that is the expression of his own will," Stefano said.

In case Mattarella makes Cottarelli PM-designate, the latter "will not have any chance to create the government," the MP said. "We will never support the kind of a different government than us," he stressed.

Arguing that Mattarella has broken all the rules of an established European democracy, Stefano described his conduct as "something without any historic record until today."

Mattarella's objection to the economy minister candidacy earlier drew the ire of MS5 leader Luigi Di Maio, who called the president's decision "incomprehensible" and called for his impeachment.