- Title: Italy PD party tells president ready to form govt with 5-Star
- Date: 28th August 2019
- Summary: ROME, ITALY (AUGUST 28, 2019) (REUTERS) ***WARNING: CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** CLOSE UP OF CORAZZIERI HONOUR GUARD ZINGARETTI EXITING FROM MATTARELLA'S OFFICE (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) LEADER OF THE CENTRE-LEFT DEMOCRATIC PARTY (PD), NICOLA ZINGARETTI, SAYING: "Good evening to all. We expressed to the President of the Republic our support for the attempt to form a new government with a new political majority. Given the balance in parliament, we told the president that we had accepted the proposal of the 5-Star Movement to indicate, as majority party, the name of the prime minister. This name was given to us by the 5-Star Movement in recent days. We also firmly confirmed to President Mattarella, as we said during our first meeting, the need now to build a completely different government for this country. After talks between the Democratic Party and the 5-Star Movement, in the past few days we have defined a first common political list of guidelines to offer to the appointed president." PHOTOGRAPHER ZINGARETTI AND GENTILONI LEAVING EXTERIOR OF QUIRINALE PRESIDENTIAL PALACE GUARD MEMBERS OF DEMOCRATIC PARTY'S DELEGATION, GRAZIANO DEL RIO AND ANDREA MARCUCCI, ENTERING QUIRINALE PRESIDENTIAL PALACE FOR TALKS (AHEAD OF ZINGARETTI'S SPEECH TO MEDIA AND THE MEETING WITH MATTARELLA)
- Embargoed: 11th September 2019 15:51
- Keywords: 5-Star Movement Giuseppe Conte coalition Luigi Di Maio government crisis League Democratic Party Italian politics Nicola Zingaretti Matteo Salvini
- Location: ROME, ITALY
- City: ROME, ITALY
- Country: Italy
- Topics: Lawmaking,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA003AU4UONB
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Opposition leader Nicola Zingaretti told Italy's president on Wednesday (August 28) that his Democratic Party (PD) was ready to try to form a government with the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement.
Speaking after talks with President Sergio Mattarella, Zingaretti told reporters his party was also ready to accept the 5-Star candidate for prime minister -- the current premier Giuseppe Conte.
"We expressed to the President of the Republic our support for the attempt to form a new government with a new political majority", Zingaretti told reporters. "Given the balance in parliament, we told the President that we had accepted the proposal of the 5-Star Movement to indicate, as majority party, the name of the Prime Minister."
The two parties have been inching towards forming a coalition despite years of mutual hostility, as they sought to avoid snap elections that could favour the hard-right League party.
Its leader Matteo Salvini collapsed the previous coalition alliance with 5-Star earlier this month after prolonged infighting.
The prospect of a new government led by Conte, an academic who has no political affiliation but is considered close to the 5-Star, has buoyed markets, which are betting that Italy will avoid snap elections.
(Production: Carmelo Camilli, Matteo Berlenga, Fabiano Franchitti) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2019. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
