At least nine senators from the Five Star Movement (M5S) are ready to reject a coalition with the left-wing establishment Democratic Party (PD), according to a member of populist Matteo Salvini’s League party.
League politician and deputy secretary Andrea Crippa claims that M5S senators have approached him saying that they will not support the proposed coalition with the PD, which has announced it aims to reverse the anti-mass migration policies enacted by Salvini, Il Giornale reports.
“There have been, in the last hours, at least nine M5S senators who have called me, saying they are willing not to vote for confidence” in Prime Minister Conte’s proposed government, Crippa told Italian media.
Crippa described the senators as being from southern Italy as well as central and northern Italy and said that the senators would likely ask to run as candidates for the League in the next Italian national election.
The opposition comes after Il Giornale reported over the weekend that there were M5S senators worried about losing their seats if they supported the new proposed coalition.
Much of the opposition to the new coalition comes due to the request by the PD to scrap the anti-mass migration policies of Matteo Salvini and reopen the country’s ports to migrant transport NGOs, a move which even M5S leader Luigi Di Maio has come out against.
PD leader Nicola Zingaretti said over the weekend that a new coalition would need radical change on the topic of migration saying: “What is happening in these hours in the Mediterranean, amid continuous landings on our coasts and inhuman bans, confirms that the immigration policies of the last few months have not solved anything.”
The M5S are set to vote among themselves using the “Rousseau platform” on Tuesday to determine whether members also support joining the establishment left-wing PD to form a new government.
Should the vote fail, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte will be forced to return to Italian President Sergio Matarella and new elections could be called.