An Italian political crisis that has rattled the eurozone deepened yesterday when two party leaders ruled out the most likely options to form a government and avoid a new election.
Populist leader Beppe Grillo slammed the door on overtures from centre-left boss Pier Luigi Bersani with a stream of insults while Nichi Vendola, Bersani’s junior coalition partner, ruled out a government alliance with the centre-right.
These two options are currently seen as the only way to avoid returning to the polls in short order after the February 24-25 election, in which a huge protest vote against traditional politicians and austerity policies plunged Italy into deadlock.
The prospect of prolonged uncertainty in the eurozone’s third-largest economy caused sharp falls on world markets immediately following the election result, but they calmed yesterday after solid demand for Italian government debt at an auction, with European bonds, shares and the euro all boosted.
The centre-left took the most seats in the poll but no single group has a big enough majority to rule.
Grillo’s anti-establishment 5-Star Movement blocked centre-left control of Parliament after one of the biggest populist victories in recent European history.
Bersani put out cautious feelers to Grillo on Tuesday, suggesting there could be agreement on a short list of measures common to both sides. But he said those supporting a centre-left government would have to back it in a confidence vote, which would be essential before it could be installed.
Grillo responded on his blog by calling Bersani a “dead man talking” and a political stalker, accusing him of making “indecent proposals” and calling on him to resign. The centre-left slumped to well below the winning majority that opinion polls had predicted.
Grillo said 5-Star would not give a vote of confidence to the centre-left or anybody else, but would support laws that reflected its own programme to abolish a despised electoral law, slash the privileges of a discredited political class and remove public funding from the parties.
With Grillo refusing to support a centre-left government, the only other option on the table appears to be an alliance between Bersani and the centre-right of Silvio Berlusconi, but that would probably have a very limited shelf life amid wide disagreements on policy.
Even that option receded yesterday after Vendola, leader of the leftist SEL party, ruled it out in a statement after meeting Bersani. Vendola said he hoped Grillo didn’t want a right-left alliance either and called for a government that would give the country an “electric shock” – a possible new bid to win support from the Genoese stand-up comic for the centre left.