Giuseppe Conte has until Saturday to hit the treble and that is to receive from the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella - who has started the consultations to form the new government - the task of attempting his third government, the so-called Conte-ter. The Head of State it was very clear: to grant Conte the job again, he wants to be sure that the outgoing premier will find the numbers to create a "strong and cohesive" government and with a clear pro-European imprint, which is up to the demands coming from Brussels for the implementation of the Recovery Plan and the consequent reforms.
IERI (Yesterday) in the Senate, a group of about ten "managers" has already been formed, but that is not enough: for now, without the support of Italia Viva, the majority formed by Pd, Cinque Stelle and Leu, would arrive at Palazzo Madama with 154 or 157 votes, that is, under the absolute majority. For smooth sailing Conte would need another dozen senators which is not easy to find. Or he should go to Canossa to Matteo Renzi e ask for the open support of Italia Viva, which is possible but at very high political prices, because Renzi does not prejudge the premier but has never hidden that he prefers other solutions to Conte's reconfirmation.
On Saturday we will see what Mattarella's choices will be but, if Conte fails and does not receive the reappointment, other candidates would advance. A preliminary problem is to understand if the task of forming the new government would be given to a politician – that is, to one of the top exponents of the Five Stars or the Democratic Party – or to an independent figure.
In the first case, the candidates in pole position are the foreign minister Luigi Di Maio for the Five Stars and the Minister of Economy Roberto Gualtieri, after that for the Pd both Nicola Zingaretti and Dario Franceschini have excluded their candidacies. This morning, however, "La Repubblica" puts forward another hypothesis which is partly political and partly institutional and that is the return to Palazzo Chigi of the vice president and commissioner for economic affairs of the EU, Paolo Gentiloni, with the possible passage either to Foreign Affairs or to Brussels of the outgoing premier Giuseppe Conte.
But other candidates may emerge from Mattarella's top hat, such as that of the economist Carlo Cottarelli, who was already an explorer at the beginning of the legislature, or that of the Governor of the Bank of Italy, Ignazio Visco, considering that, as in the times of Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, the Central Bank has always been a reserve of the Republic. The next few days are announced to be electric.
