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Italy's parliament meets for first time in deadlock
Thomson Reuters
By Massimiliano Di Giorgio and Giuseppe Fonte
ROME (Reuters) - Italy's parliament met for the first time on Friday after a national election earlier this month left no group with any clear majority and as talks between political rivals stalled.
The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, which emerged the biggest party in the March 4 vote, appeared to have stitched up the choices of the speakers of the two houses, the opening act of the new parliament, just 24 hours ago.
But the 81-year-old, four-time Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, a major power-broker on the center-right, quashed the deal by insisting on meeting 5-Star leader Luigi Di Maio, and by putting forward Paolo Romani, who has been convicted for embezzlement, for Senate speaker.
"Everything seemed like it was moving in the right direction, then at a certain point there was this story about Berlusconi insisting on meeting me," Di Maio told 5-Star lawmakers on Friday.
Five-Star's buzzword for years has been "honesty", partly as a way of distinguishing itself from Berlusconi, who has been convicted of tax fraud and cannot hold public office.
"We will not rehabilitate Silvio Berlusconi," Danilo Toninelli, the 5-Star's group leader in the lower house, said.
The election of the speakers of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies precedes formal consultations to cobble together a government and can serve as a sign as to what kind of ruling alliance could be formed.
Parliament is split into three main blocs. The center-left Democratic Party (PD) trails 5-Star, and the center-right bloc, which has the most seats.
The vote relegated Berlusconi's Forza Italia (Go Italy!) to junior partner behind the far-right League for the first time.
League party leader Matteo Salvini "had been selected to speak for the center right, and that's who we talked to," Di Maio said.
One thing to watch for during the parliamentary voting in coming days will be whether Salvini continues to allow Berlusconi to call the shots, or whether he will break with the center-right coalition and strike a deal with 5-Star on his own.
But this looks unlikely now. Political sources have said serious negotiations to form a government might have to wait until after regional elections slated for the end of April.
Even the speaker voting could go on for days. Both 5-Star and the PD have said they would vote blank ballots on Friday, which means neither speaker is likely to be chosen before Saturday, when a smaller majority is needed to elect them.
(Writing by Steve Scherer and Isla Binnie; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
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