Italy

4 September 2019; AFP: Italy's new coalition government will be sworn in on Thursday, drawing a line under a crisis sparked by the far right with a more moderate and pro-European line-up.

Incoming Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte presented his cabinet after hammering out a deal between former foes from the anti-establishment Five Star Movement and the centre-left Democratic Party.

ROME (Reuters) - Italy’s anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and center-left Democratic Party (PD) unveiled a shared policy program on Tuesday for their mooted coalition, putting an expansionary 2020 budget at the top of their agenda.

5-Star, created a decade ago out of out of opposition to the PD, has agreed to form a new administration with its former foes to head off a snap election after its previous coalition with the far-right League collapsed last month.

ROME, Aug 29 (NNN-Xinhua) — Italian president Sergio Mattarella summoned outgoing Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on Thursday in order to ask him to try to form a new coalition government.

“President Sergio Mattarella has summoned professor Giuseppe Conte Thursday at 9:30 a.m. (local time),” the president’s office said in a statement late on Wednesday.

The latest development in the Italian political crisis came after negotiations between anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) and center-left Democratic Party (PD) reached a positive, although still partial, result.

ROME (AP) — Two Italian political parties agreed Wednesday to try to form a new coalition government, putting aside past rivalry to forestall an election that could put right-wing nationalist Matteo Salvini in power as premier.

Luigi di Maio, the leader of the populist 5-Star Movement, said he had informed Italy’s president of his party’s potential partnership with the opposition Democratic Party that would see Giuseppe Conte return as prime minister.

28 Aug 2019; MEMO: Italy has grounded two planes used to rescue migrant boats in the Mediterranean as the country’s far-right interior minister continues his hard-line stance against migrants.

ENAC has confirmed it has grounded two aircrafts operated by the German NGO Sea-Watch and the French NGO Pilotes Volontaires, Moonbird and Colibri, on the grounds they are approved for recreational not professional use.

Sea-Watch has said the decision is political and in breach of international law.

27 August 2019; AFP: Italy's anti-establishment Five Star Movement threatened Tuesday to pull the plug on tense negotiations with the centre-left Democratic Party over forming a new government, insisting its choice of prime minister was a red line.

The parties have been trying to create a new workable coalition following the collapse of the country's populist government, despite having been bitter enemies until just a few weeks ago.

ROME/BERLIN (Reuters) - Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has signed a decree to ban a migrant rescue ship operated by the German charity Mission Lifeline from accessing Italian waters, sources at the ministry said on Tuesday.

A succession of charity vessels has struggled over the past year to bring migrants rescued at sea to Italian shores as Salvini, leader of the far-right League, takes a tough line. He is maintaining that line even though the coalition government that includes the League is locked in a political crisis.

ROME, Aug 27 (NNN-ANSA) — Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Salvini on Tuesday barred the German-flagged migrant rescue ship Eleonore from entering Italian waters with over 100 migrants it picked up off Libya on Monday.

Anti-migrant Euroskeptic League party leader Salvini has closed Italy’s ports to NGO-run migrant rescue ships and there have been several standoffs which have ended with the European Union agreeing to take the migrants, reported Italian news agency ANSA.

ROME, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- Italian President Sergio Mattarella will open a second round of consultations on Tuesday and Wednesday, in a new attempt to solve the ongoing government crisis, the president's office revealed on Monday.

The coalition government forged between far-right League and anti-establishment Five Star Movement in June 2018 ended on Aug. 20 with the resignation of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.

Mattarella would begin on Tuesday afternoon by meeting the speakers of lower house and senate, the president's office said in a statement.

ROME, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) -- Italian President Sergio Mattarella said on Thursday that he would decide on possible snap elections next week, after a new round of talks with parties aimed at solving the crisis triggered by the collapse of the populist government.

"The president of the Republic has a duty to not preclude the will expressed by a majority of forces in parliament," Mattarella declared at a short press conference at the Quirinale Palace.

"At the same time... in the country's interest, I have the duty to ask (from parties) quick decisions."