Italy’s President Asks Populists: Call Me When You’re Ready
- Head of state puts premier-designate Cottarelli on standby
- Five Star, League leaders float a series of trial balloons
This article is for subscribers only.
Italian President Sergio Mattarella is ready to appoint a new prime minister, but he’s waiting for a signal from the populists who denounced him as an enemy of democracy.
Days after the anti-establishment Five Star Movement and the anti-immigrant League walked away from a bid to form a coalition government, the president wants to find out whether they’re ready to revive it, according to a senior state official. While the head of state stalls, premier-designate Carlo Cottarelli, 63, a former International Monetary Fund executive, is being forced to wait.