After the closure of the two ovens and the failure of the two alternative government schemes (centre-right-M5S or M5S-Pd), the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, will wait for the conclusions of the hot meeting of the Pd leadership on Wednesday, before deciding on the to do. But something, under a trace, is moving in the dead mill of Italian politics. Sixty days after the elections of March 4 and after tactics and counter-tactics based on nothing, yesterday, for the first time, Matteo Salvini's right-hand man in the League, Giancarlo Giorgetti, has opened up the possibility of creating a government of purpose, made up of the centre-right and M5s but involving all the others in Parliament and with a limited time horizon, to redo the electoral law before returning to the polls, probably in the autumn next or, at the latest, in the first months of 2019.
The possibility-based and more flexible line of the League, which, strengthened by the electoral successes in Molise and Friuli, seems to have somewhat discolored the prejudicial foreclosure against the Democratic Party, puts the Five Stars in difficulty which, still in the shock of the no Matteo Renzi to an M5S-Pd government, they would like to return to voting immediately and instead give the President of the Republic more room for movement. Mattarella could give Giorgetti the job within the week to attempt the formation of a government of purpose, even if yesterday evening Salvini excluded an institutional government (which however is different from the government of purpose) and claimed that he will try to the last to give life to a government between the centre-right and the Conque Stelle, which could hardly accept an alliance with Berlusconi. But with the grillini, stunned as they are today by Renzi's slap and by the Fico case, one can never say never.
In any case, Giorgetti himself has ruled out that the government of purpose can go beyond the electoral law and also engage in constitutional reforms, as Renzi had proposed, but the Head of State could have good luck in reminding the eventual government of purpose that, in addition to the new electoral law, is the budget maneuver to be approved within the year to avoid the provisional exercise. This could extend the life of the purpose government until the first months of 2019 and which certainly would not displease either Silvio Berlusconi or the Democratic Party.
In the next few days it will be understood whether the government can finally take off to make the new electoral law. Or if the hallucinatory after March 4 will reserve other surprises. What is certain is that now Mattarella's moves are truly decisive. And the fact that, albeit amid a thousand tactical contortions, Salvini has said he is willing not to claim Palazzo Chigi if the Head of State finds "one better than me", leaves open glimmers of solution to the puzzle of 4 March.
