5Star Movement veteran Roberto Fico was elected speaker of the lower house | Tiziana Fabi/AFP via Getty Images

Italy’s parliament elects new speakers

League boss Salvini emerges as power-broker ahead of efforts to form government.



ROME — After days of frantic maneuvering and broken deals, the Italian parliament elected new speakers for both chambers on Saturday, paving the way for negotiations to create a new government.

In the second day of voting, 5Star Movement veteran Roberto Fico was elected speaker of the lower house, with 422 votes out of 620, while Forza Italia’s Maria Elisabetta Casellati was chosen as the Senate speaker with 240 votes out of 319.

The elections sealed an agreement between the anti-establishment 5Stars and a center-right coalition dominated by the leader of the far-right League, Matteo Salvini, who emerged as the main power-broker.

The speakers’ election was the first task of the newly elected parliament to emerge from an inconclusive general election on March 4. Its outcome confirmed that the 5Star Movement, which prevailed in the vote as the single largest party, and the center-right coalition, which obtained more combined votes, will be the main players in the upcoming consultations to try to form a viable government, which may still take weeks if not months.

The election produced a hung parliament, with the right-leaning alliance taking a combined 37 percent and the anti-establishment 5Stars getting 32 percent. Both fell short of a majority, leaving the incumbent center-left Democratic Party — which won a meager 19 percent — in the role of potential kingmaker.

A deal on the speakers was reached on Saturday after Salvini’s League, which made surprise gains in the election to come in ahead of Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, agreed to give Luigi Di Maio’s 5Stars the lower house job and Forza Italia the Senate post.

Salvini took a central role in the negotiations, eventually forcing Berlusconi to drop his candidate for the Senate presidency, Paolo Romani, who was firmly opposed by the 5Stars due to an embezzlement conviction.

Casellati, a long-time Berlusconi ally, emerged as the new center-right candidate for the Senate on Saturday morning and obtained the 5Stars’ backing, paving the way for an agreement on Fico to preside over the lower house.

“I’m happy that the chambers can start working and proud of the unity of the center right,” Salvini said immediately after the proclamation of the two speakers.

The agreement with the 5Stars confirmed Salvini’s grip over the center-right alliance, as his leadership overshadowed Berlusconi in his traditional role of kingmaker.

“Salvini played the dominant role in this match, both within the center-right alliance and in the dialogue with the 5Stars,” said La Stampa commentator Marcello Sorgi. “There’s now an axis between Salvini and Di Maio, which may emerge again in the consultations to form a government.”

Despite the deal on the speakers, it is still unclear if subsequent consultations among the parties led by President Sergio Mattarella can produce a viable government.

To break the political impasse, Mattarella could opt for an “institutional government” with cross-party support, though it would be only a short-term solution leading to a fresh general election later this year or early in 2019.