It looks like Matteo Salvini just got relegated.
The leaders of Italy's ruling anti-establishment Five Star Movement reportedly struck an agreement with the center-left Democratic Party to form a new government Wednesday. The new coalition will allow Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, who had previously announced his resignation following Salvini's calls for snap elections, to remain at his post.
Salvini, who serves as both Italy's deputy prime minister and interior minister, and his anti-migrant League party, will likely be sidelined by the new deal; the League had been in a power-sharing agreement with Five Star since the spring of 2018, only to see the relationship fracture. Still, Salvini and the League remain popular in Italy, and polls suggested the League would win enough seats to govern outright, or at least alongside a smaller, right-wing party, in the case of new elections.
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Salvini was reportedly furious and has continued calls for new elections. He predicted the new government would fail, arguing the only thing the parties have in common is "hatred against the League." There's probably a ring of truth to that — a mere days ago, Five Star leaders had described the Democratic Party as the party of Mafiosi, corrupt elites, and kidnappers, The New York Times reports.
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