President Mattarella Ran Out of Patience: Italy's Political Deadlock Must Come to an End

At the end of an unsuccessful second round of formal consultations to form a government, Italian President Sergio Mattarella made clear that he wanted to put an end to the longstanding, unsuccessful negotiations among the majoritarian parties, i.e. the Five-Star-Movement and the right-wing coalition and take alternative measures to break Italy’s political deadlock. Thus, on April 18, he gave the Head of the Italian Senate and member of Forza Italia Maria Elisabetta Casellati two days to verify whether an agreement between the Five-Star-Movement and the right-wing coalition could be reached. This measure, which is not regulated by Italian law but, rather, is a long-standing practice of Italian politics, is known as an “exploratory mandate” and provides for the Italian President to assign a preeminent political figure the task to mediate among the parliament’s members in order to form a government. So far, this practice has been used every time no clear majority has resulted from Italy’s general elections, which has happened three times since the foundation of the Italian Republic in 1946, most recently in 2013.

Unfortunately, no significant steps forward have been made by Casellati. The right-wing coalition once again rejected the proposal to form a government which would have included the Five-Star Movement and the right wing coalition but excluded Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, which has been the Five-Star-Movement’s sine qua non condition since the very beginning of the negotiations.

In light of this negative outcome and after waiting three more days, Mattarella adopted plan B, appointing the Head of the Chamber of Deputies Roberto Fico to seek a potential agreement between the Five-Star-Movement and the Democratic Party (PD). This came quite unexpectedly, since the center-left Democratic Party, which governed Italy from 2013 to 2017, had received the lowest number of votes in its history in the March general elections and had always been overtly reluctant to join a government led by the anti-establishment Five Star Movement or the anti-immigrant League. League’s leader Matteo Salvini made his discontent clear, referring to the measure taken by Mattarella as “a mockery”, while Five-Star Movement’s leader Luigi Di Maio supported it and started negotiating with the PD’s leader Maurizio Martina.

Democratic Party's leader Maurizio Martina (Source)

Martina recently replaced former leader and Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, after he resigned due to the party’s poor performance in the national elections. His task is quite difficult, since the PD already split with Matteo Renzi in 2017, with some of its members forming a new party, and it now splits once again over the talks with the Five-Star-Movement. Most party members still call for staying on the sidelines. But Mattarella’s call to overcome Italy’s political impasse should not be underestimated.

On April 24, Martina stated that the Democrats may open up talks with the Five-Star-Movement only if it breaks off contact with the center right. Since then, negotiations continue and Fico seems to intend to ask Mattarella to extend the deadline. The hope is that, as was the case for the Social Democrats in Germany, which eventually joined a government led by Angela Merkel, the PD's resistance will wane over time. Let’s wait and see.