Ill-starred formation of government in Italy

Six weeks after the parliamentary elections there is still no sign of a new government in Italy. Talks led by the speaker of the Senate, Elisabetta Casellati, also seem likely to end without any results today, Friday. The main sticking point is that the Movimento Cinque Stelle is only willing to form a coalition with the Lega Nord if the latter ends its alliance with Silvio Berlusconi and his Forza Italia party. What will become of the voters' hopes of a fresh start?

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La Repubblica (IT) /

Frankenstein dies in the cradle

So the Janus-faced monster born of the alliance between the M5S and Lega Nord won't even see the light of day, La Repubblica comments with a sneer:

“The farce is over, rest in peace. After 45 days - a total waste of time - the cannibalistic ritual of the 'false winner' ends as it began. The Grillo-Lega Frankenstein has devoured itself and died in the cradle. As hybrid, chameleon-like and mutable as the Five Star movement's body may be, it couldn't survive the Berlusconi transplantation. It has rejected Berlusconi after the Five-Star Movement made [Lega leader] Salvini and especially President Mattarella believe that it would tolerate him. ... It was foreseeable that this experiment would fail, but that doesn't make the whole spectacle any less embarrassing.”

Le Figaro (FR) /

Not the fresh start Italy was hoping for

Any hopes the Italian electorate may have entertained of a fresh start seem likely to be disappointed, essayist Fabrizio Tribuzio-Bugatti warns in Le Figaro:

“While the quest for normality and security in France is resulting in voters willingly succumbing to pro-European blackmail under the banner of 'it's me or chaos', in Italy the opposite is the case. When it comes to traditional politics and the European Union the Italians want change on an economic, social and political level. Yet governmental negotiations indicate another political transformation where, as we like to say, everything must change so that it can stay the same.”