Ex-Italian MEP Presumes German Pressure Behind Failure to Form New Gov’t

Italian President Sergio Mattarella has given a mandate to economist Carlo Cottarelli to form a government. This comes in light of the Five Star Movement's leader calling for the impeachment of the president after he vetoed the list of candidates for government ministers, proposed by the prime minister candidate Guiseppe Conte.

Sputnik has discussed the developments with Fabrizio Bertot, former MEP from the Forza Italia party.

Sputnik: A lot is happening in Italy and what’s the main disagreement over regarding the formation of the government in Italy?

Fabrizio Bertot: What happened is not very clear because as you know yesterday Mr. Conte (dismissed)  the rule because it wasn’t able to organize a government with the two parties Five Stars and Lega Nord. And today Mattarella gave the rule to Mr. Cottarelli. The problem is that Mr. Conte, of course under the suggestion of Mr. Salvini, proposed as a Minister of Economy Professor Paolo Savona who has an opinion that is not considered very politically correct in the European system. So Mattarella didn’t agree with his government and of course everybody crashed, everything crashed.

Sputnik: Of course, Mr. Savona is known to be a staunch critic of the euro and author of the plan of taking Italy from the single currency area, so I suppose this was to be anticipated don’t you think?

Fabrizio Bertot: The thing is that Professor Savona was a very important economist that had many times the rule of the Minister of Economy in Italy with other governments. So it wasn’t just last week that he was considered as a very important economist.  The problem is that from the last weeks he had some interviews where he criticized the organization of the European Union and especially he criticized the rule of Germany inside the European Union. This is what happened in reality. And probably his name wasn’t well-accepted from Angela Merkel maybe from Macron because there was criticism against the organization of the European Union and especially the rule of Germany.

Sputnik: Who do you see becoming the next candidate for prime minister after Conte gives up his mandate?

Fabrizio Bertot: The name that now is proposed is the name of Cottarelli. Cottarelli is of course a good economist, has a good curriculum but at the moment I don’t see any possibility to have a majority in the Parliament because now I think that the choice of Mattarella to boycott the government that can’t have a majority in the parliament probably will result in Cottarelli also not having a majority. I think that the only route is to vote again in autumn as soon as possible.

Sputnik: Cottarelli has already said that if the Italian government grants its confidence to the new government fresh elections will take place in early 2019, if not then new elections will take place after August, that’s very soon.

Fabrizio Bertot: Yes, we’re to vote after August because there is no possibility to have the majority for Cottarelli. I suppose also my party will not accept it and the only solution is maybe to organize a sort of modification of our electoral law, the same electoral law but with some modifications in order to increase the majority premium and go to vote. Because at the moment it’s not acceptable that from Europe, from the EU, from Angela Merkel, from France, from abroad arrive suggestions about who will be the Minister of Economy in Italy. I think that citizens are owners of our country and its citizens decided that Paolo Savona is a good minister is not up to Macron, to Angela Merkel or to Mr. Juncker to decide if he’s good or not. We’re in Italy, the sovereignty of our country is more important than everything that’s around.

Sputnik: How realistic is the possibility that the Italian President Sergio Mattarella will be impeached? What kind of support does he enjoy?

Fabrizio Bertot: I don’t believe that impeachment can be a solution because the impeachment isn’t something that has an immediate result. It’s a very long procedure because the parliament has to vote, then the proposed resolution has to be transmitted to a specific commission and that probably won’t be completed because there’s a new parliament. So I don’t know if they still have to organize this commission. And then after this committee everything has to be transmitted to the Constitutional Court. So it’s something very long. We can do that but it’s not useful to obtain any kind of result so I think that it’s not the most important thing because it doesn’t represent a solution. It’s better to organize as soon as possible new elections, a new parliament with a clear majority.

The views and opinions expressed by Fabrizio Bertot are those of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect Sputnik's position.