The jurist Giuseppe Conte, technician of the Five Star area and professor of private law at the University of Florence, is the premier who, barring last-minute surprises, the leaders of the League and of M5S, Matteo Salvini and Luigi Di Maio, will propose on Monday afternoon at the Quirinale to the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, who is responsible for the final decision both on the person of the candidate and on his technical rather than political profile. The pentastellati are expected at the Colle at 17.30, closely followed by the representatives of the Carroccio, expected for 18.00.
The anticipation that Mattarella will not discuss ministers with Di Maio and Salvini but only with the candidate for prime minister also filters from the Quirinale.
The white smoke between the two sovereign political forces for the birth of the new government arrived during the day after a face-to-face meeting between Di Maio and Salvini which lasted a couple of hours in which, in addition to the candidacy of the prime minister, the structure of government.
Salvini should go to the helm of the Ministry of the Interior, from which he plans to manage the squeeze on immigration policy, while Di Maio should go to Work, unified with economic development, from where he would like to launch the citizen's income but where he will also have to dealing with pensions and the future of Ilva.
Di Maio and Salvini will both be appointed deputy prime minister.
The surprise of the last hour could be the appointment of former minister Paolo Savona to the Treasury with a share in the League, once a pupil of Guido Carli but a few years ago converted to Euroscepticism, while the right-hand man of the Northern League leader, Giancarlo Giorgetti, could become Undersecretary to the Presidency of the Council.
Ambassador Giampiero Massolo, currently president of Fincantieri, should become the new foreign minister and try to reassure Europe.
For the other important ministries, the grillino Alfonso Bonafede is in the running for Justice and the ambassador Fabio Salzano (originally from Pomigliano d'Arco like Di Maio) for Defense, at M5S altitude, the Northern League Nicola Molteni for Agriculture and the other Northern League member Gian Marco Centinaio for the resurgent Ministry of Tourism.-
The attribution of the very important ministry of Transport and Infrastructure is still uncertain while the Northern League Giulia Bongiorno should deal with relations with Parliament. The M5S area doctor is in the running for Health. Armando Bertolazzi and Senator Barbara Montevecchi for Culture.
But, in addition to evaluating the formation of the ministerial team, the Head of State will not miss the opportunity to demand that the new government does not question international alliances and permanence in Europe and in the euro and keeps public finances under control that the promises of the Lega and Cinque Stelle program contract risk turning things into a tailspin with a worsening of the deficit of over 100 billion euros, according to the calculations of the Cottarelli Observatory.
While the Democratic Party has announced that it will make a very tough opposition to the new government, it will be interesting to understand the orientation that Forza Italia and the Brothers of Italy will take, i.e. Silvio Berlusconi and Giorgia Meloni, who spared no criticism of the center-right leader Salvini, accused of making too many concessions to the Five Stars.
If we consider that in the Senate the Lega-M5S government has a majority reduced to 7 units, we understand that Salvini is trying in every way not to break with his allies and above all with Berlusconi but his seems to be a work of high balancing from doubt outcome.
(Last update: 11.54 on May 21st).
