What will Prime Minister Conte do if at the end of the month a parliamentary motion to approve the new Mes without conditions will be approved by Italy Viva, from Pd and even from Forza Italy by Silvio Berlusconi, but not from the Five Stars? In a situation of political normality, the immediate opening of the Government crisis, but now there is the Coronavirus emergency and Giuseppe Conte, accused for two days of cadornism by the Democratic Party but yesterday rehabilitated by the secretary Nicola Zingaretti, is transformation master, as he already demonstrated last summer, when he passed without blushing from a government alliance with the League to one with Renzi, the Democratic Party and Leu as well as, in both cases, with the Five Stars.
The correction of the prime minister's shot, uncritically lying on the anti-MES line of the Five Stars until two days ago, began a minute after the end of the Pd's delay and the pro-MES pronouncement not only by Matteo Renzi, who once again he paved the way for the European realignment of the government, but of Zingaretti himself. Indeed yesterday Conte started the U-turn, arguing that at the next European Council he will fight for exclude vexatious clauses of the Mes, which in reality do not exist, and that only afterwards will he express "a complete and circumspect evaluation" on its use. Antichamber of yet another somersault which, however, does not make the path that will lead Conte under the Mes caudine forks less narrow – at least for two reasons.
Firstly, because yesterday another political novelty emerged on the Mes and that is the split of the centre-right, with Silvio Berlusconi, which in 2010 initiated Italy's accession to the Mes first version (the one with conditionality) and which yesterday clearly distanced itself from the sovereignists Matteo Salvini and Giorgia Meloni, pronouncing itself in favor of the new Mes.
Secondly because, at least in words and at least for now, the Five Stars, who know they are putting their face on the No al Mes, do not give up and insist on preliminary refusal of the 36 billion euros that the new Salva-Stati Fund could immediately guarantee to Italy.
The Prime Minister therefore finds himself having to deal with his ambiguities and is caught between two fires: on the one hand the Yes to the new Mes of the reformist wing of the Government to which Berlusconi is added and on the other the opposition not only of the Salvini and Meloni, but of the Five Stars, who brought the Apulian lawyer to Palazzo Chigi. It is clear that, if he does not want to lose the Presidency of the Council, the premier cannot disappoint the Democratic Party, who immediately rushed to appreciate Conte's shot correction, but Sergio Mattarella cannot disappoint either, who would not like an incomprehensible European anti-MES isolation of our government.
However, it would be necessary to convince the Five Stars to capitulate, but here the comedy of misunderstandings is short of breath. In the end either the grillini lose face or Conte loses it. The important thing is that Italy does not lose it on the Mes. But there are already those who speak of creeping crisis need a government to rebuild the country after the health emergency which cannot be led by Conte. Yesterday's stock market crash speak for itself.
