Italy's Unlikely Allies Offer a Brief Respite From Crisis
Giuseppe Conte’s success in bringing these strange bedfellows together can’t hide the differences that will make for an unstable coalition.
Conte will need to lead from the front to make this coalition work.
Photographer: FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP/Getty Images
After three weeks of turmoil, Italy’s political crisis seems over, for now. Giuseppe Conte, the resigning prime minister, will try to form a new government with a different coalition. Out goes the hard-right League led by Matteo Salvini, and in comes the center-left Democratic Party, which will team up with the anti-establishment Five Star Movement. Such are the differences between the two forces, however, that it’s hard to see how they can form a stable alliance.
Conte will need to lead from the front, if he is to make this coalition of very strange bedfellows work. In his first year in government, he was relegated to the role of a notary who was meant to ensure that the League and Five Star respected the government contract both had signed. This experiment has comprehensively failed, dragging Italy into an economic slowdown and political tumult. Conte should now understand that being prime minister really is the most important job in a country.