The poker game that the leader of the 5 Star Movement (M5E), Giuseppe Conte, is playing with the Italian Prime Minister, Mario Draghi, experienced a new risky episode yesterday. After weeks of high tension, both due to disagreements over the shipment of weapons to Ukraine and over the management of the crisis, Conte yesterday issued an ultimatum in a meeting with his successor and made it clear that for his party to remain within the coalition Draghi government will have to abide by important changes in economic matters.
Although a possible departure from the M5E would not numerically mean the fall of the Executive, the former president of the European Central Bank has already warned that without them he could not continue.
The meeting went well, according to the government version. However, Conte assured the press that he delivered a document with a series of claims, starting with not touching the so-called citizenship income, a subsidy system implemented by the M5E that is the star measure of the grillini’s rise to power.
He also demanded a minimum wage -it does not exist in Italy-, extraordinary measures against inflation or reducing the tax wedge for workers and companies. Draghi will take a few days to study the text. “We are asking for a strong message of discontinuity,” stressed the leader of the M5E.
Conte’s pulse is framed at a time when Italy is beginning to prepare for next year’s electoral campaign. And, above all, when the ex-premier is trying to compact his ranks after Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio left the party and caused a major split, taking some 60 parliamentarians with him.
