Casellati is supposed to verify the possibility of a parliamentary majority between the Five Star Movement and the center-right coalition.
On Wednesday April 18, President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella assigned an exploratory mandate to Forza Italia’s Maria Elisabetta Casellati, newly elected Speaker of the Senate. After the election of March 4, Italy is having a hard time to form a government, as no political party managed to make negotial progress during the recent political consultations.
A parliamentary majority between the Five Star Movement and the center-right?
Therefore, Casellati is supposed to verify the possibility of a parliamentary majority between the Five Star Movement, most voted party at the last election, and the center-right coalition, the major political block resulting from the vote. So far, the Five Star Movement returned to the sender all proposals to form a government together with Silvio Berlusconi’s party Forza Italia, not recognizing his leadership for judicial reasons.
Di Maio’s veto on Berlusconi
Indeed, the Five Stars candidate Prime Minister, Luigi Di Maio, urged the other center-right’s leader, Northern League’s Matteo Salvini, to break the historical alliance with Berlusconi and make a deal for a yellow-green government. Although Salvini refused, also due to the political consequences of such a radical change of position, he left the doors open to Di Maio, remarking that the Northern League will take part alone to the consultations with Casellati.
On the contrary, Di Maio did not leave much room for compromise, declaring that ‘this is a valuable occasion to clarify the situation, because Italy cannot wait anymore. We will reiterate our positions and proposal to the Speaker of the Senate, consistently with what we have already said in the last few days’. So his position will not change and, at least at the moment, his veto on Forza Italia remains.
Maria Elisabetta Casellati
Maria Elisabetta Casellati, who could become Italy’s first woman Prime Minister, will start today the round of consultations with the Five Star Movement, Northern League, Forza Italia and Brothers of Italy political groups. Born in Rovigo and lawyer, she is one of the founding members of Forza Italia. Since 1994, she was always elected Member of Senate and was appointed undersecretary in different Silvio Berlusconi’s governments.