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TEHRAN, May 28 - Luigi Di Maio, Italy's deputy prime minister and the leader of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S), has called for a confidence vote from party supporters, after a defeat in European elections.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - "Today, I have the right to know what you think of my actions. I want to hear the voice of the citizens who elected me as political leader a few years back," Di Maio said in a post on the M5S blog on Wednesday.
The vote will take place online on Thursday on a dedicated platform linked to the 5-Star Movement.
The M5S rules in coalition with the far-right League, which scored a significant victory in the European election.
The Five Star Movement gained only 17.1 percent of the vote at the Sunday elections, compared to the League's 34.3 percent.
"I haven't stopped working for the last 6 years and I think I have always honored my duties, always making myself accountable to all the movement's members and activists," Di Maio said.
The M5S chief has been criticized for having many roles as he also serves as economic development, labor and social policies minister in the government formed last June.
EU asks for explanation on soaring debt
Also on Wednesday, the EU asked Rome to explain within two days what factors contributed to its soaring debt.
"Based on notified data for 2018, Italy is confirmed not to have made sufficient progress towards compliance with debt criterion in 2018," the European Commission said in a letter to the Italian government.
The letter was sent the day after Matteo Salvini, the head of the far-right League party, called EU fiscal rules obsolete.
Salvini dismissed the warning, adding that he expected Brussels to sanction his country for its deteriorating public finances by imposing a fine of three billion euros.
"Gentlemen of Brussels, the time is over for little letters, reminders that say you are bad ... and should remain unemployed for 10 years because that is the European rule," he said on Tuesday. "Let us recover our right to growth and the future.”
If Italy’s government does not provide clarifications by Friday or accepts that it must limit its spending plans this year, it will likely be hit by sanctions.
Italy's national debt stood at 132.2 percent of GDP in 2018. This is well above the 60 percent threshold set by European rules.
The Commission is likely to formally launch disciplinary action next week, which could result in a fine of 0.2 percent of Italy's GDP -- around 3.5 billion euros ($3.9 billion).
Such procedure needs to be validated by European Union finance ministers.
Source: Press TV
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