Northern League Won’t Support Monti Government, Maroni Says

Italy’s Northern League won’t support a government headed by former European Union Competition Commissioner Mario Monti, outgoing Interior Minister Roberto Maroni told Sky TG24 in an interview.

“We’re against this solution and think it’s the wrong choice,” Maroni, a member of the Northern League party that underpinned Silvio Berlusconi’s ruling coalition, said. “We’ll be at the opposition.”

President Giorgio Napolitano is consulting political parties and institutional exponents including the Speakers of the lower and upper houses before offering the premier post to Monti. Berlusconi stepped down as prime minister last night after dominating Italian politics for almost two decades as the fallout from his legal woes and contagion from the euro-region’s debt crisis led his government to unravel.

Northern League leader Umberto Bossi said after meeting Napolitano that his party will be at the opposition.

“For now it’s a ‘no,’ also because we don’t know the program,” Bossi said.

Antonio di Pietro, leader of the Italy Values party, said it will support the new government, but it should have a “time limit.”

Pierferdinando Casini, leader of the Union of Centrists party, said he told Napolitano that they hope the new government will “last until the end of the legislature.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Chiara Remondini in Milan at cremondini@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew Davis at abdavis@bloomberg.net