On Thursday 29 August, Jean-Claude Juncker, the President of the European Commission, sent “his warmest wishes” to Giuseppe Conte, who had been asked the previous day to form a second coalition government by Sergio Mattarella, the President of the Italian Republic, this time to include the Five Star Movement (M5S) and the Democratic Party (PD).
Mina Andreeva, a spokesperson for the Commission, said that “Italy plays a central role in our European family and we count on its active contribution to the European project”, and announced that Juncker and Conte would be speaking by telephone during the day.
In the European Parliament, Iratxe García Pérez, the chair of the Social Democratic Group, welcomed the decision made by her Italian allies in the PD to agree to form a government with the M5S, especially with a view to blocking the far-right League party, whose leader, Matteo Salvini, caused the first 'Conte' government to collapse so that he could demand an early election.
“Isolating the far right is always good news for Europe”, said Mrs García Pérez on Twitter, citing “justice and solidarity” as the next Italian government’s political priorities.
Despite the divisions between the two movements, Nicola Zingaretti, the leader of the PD, has agreed to give the experiment of governing with the movement that describes itself as being against the system a try, provided that the coalition is able to pursue a fair policy towards the European Union and can significantly change the way the country manages migration flows. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)