Italy edges toward spending less but the ‘power-struggle’ in government is growing

Antonio Masiello | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Matteo Salvini (L), Deputy Prime Minister and Italian Interior minister, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte (2L), Luigi Di Maio (2R), Deputy Prime Minister and Labor Minister, and Giancarlo Giorgetti (R) Undersecretary pose for a picture during the first cabinet meeting of the new government at the Palazzo Chigi on June 1, 2018 in Rome.

Matteo Salvini and Luigi Di Maio, the leaders of Lega and M5S respectively and joint deputy prime ministers, had promised voters that they would increase welfare spending, cut taxes and rollback unpopular pension reforms when they formed an unlikely alliance in May after March’s inconclusive election.

Since then, Salvini, who is also interior minister, has become the more prominent of the two men, taking a hard stance on immigration, a political hot potato in Italy as the country that has seen a large influx of migrants from mainly Africa, and his party has risen in opinion polls.

The latest survey of 1,500 Italian adults by news program TG La7 on September 17, showed Lega at the top of voter polls, with 31.6 percent of the vote, above M5S’ 28.7 percent.

In some ways, Lega has had the easier task of gaining voter popularity, Mehta said.

“You can talk about low-hanging fruit here, you can talk tough about immigration (as Lega do). Whereas for Di Maio, who’s in charge of the labor ministry, getting any results there is going to be a much more long-term gain and it’s going to be harder for him to politically capitalize on that in the short-term so that power struggle is there.”