MBR_ISSUE 54

Malta Business Review
ONE-ON-ONE
I’m optimistic that a
new government, if well
assembled, could be
something that in the
Council unblocks the
standstill.
ONE-ON-ONE INTERVIEW
WITH BRANDO BENIFEI
Unblocking the standstill
Conte’s record
If Giuseppe Conte, the PM of the 5Stars-
League government, remains in office and
a new 5Stars-PD government holds on until
the end of its term, he would go down
as one of Italy’s longest-serving prime
ministers. That’s quite an achievement for
a lawyer who was a virtual unknown until
last summer.
Conte will be instrumental in convincing
reluctant 5Stars members to vote in favor
of the would-be tie-up with the PD on the
populist party’s Rousseau digital polling
platform. That’s a problem for the PD,
which wants a complete break with the
current government and thus has refused
to green-light a Conte prime ministership.
But the situation has evolved, according to
Brando Benifei, head of the PD delegation
in the European Parliament, and now
“I believe everything is possible,” the
33-year-old told Playbook. That said, the
chances of a PD-5Stars tie-up are still just
“50 percent.”
Competition’s on
Benifei said the previous government’s
ambition of getting the competition
portfolio remains intact. “It’s clear that Italy
has the political weight to get an important
position … it would then be natural to have
a key portfolio like competition and, to get
it, we need a government that is able to
regain authority — the old government
would have pushed us in a marginal role,”
Benifei said. Competition remains one of
Italy’s coveted portfolios, “but there are
also others — it’s something that has to be
discussed also with the president-elect,” he
said, but declined to reveal what they are
“because we are in a very delicate phase.”
Hope for asylum breakthrough
The Dublin reform of asylum rules is stuck
and diplomats expect it to regain momentum
only during the German presidency in the
second half of next year. With the League
in power, Italy had teamed up with Hungary
and Poland, which are against the reforms.
Budapest and Warsaw “are adversaries of
the Italian interest to build a more shared,
more collective management of migration
fluxes,” Benifei said, and thereby “I’m
optimistic that a new government, if well
assembled, could be something that in the
Council unblocks the standstill.”
A change of government also raises hopes
that Operation Sophia, the anti-smuggling
naval operation in the Mediterranean that
is currently blocked from using its vessels
after League leader and Italian Interior
Minister Matteo Salvini threatened to pull
Rome out of it, could soon set sail again.
The expectation is also that Rome will stop
harassing NGOs that rescue migrants in
the Med. “I believe these are all legitimate
expectations,” Benifei said, pointing to the
fact the PD has linked the formation of a
new government to a different approach
on these matters.
No pressure
Italian media reported the PD faced strong
pressure from EU governments and from
the Catholic Church to agree to team up
with the 5Stars and leave the Euroskeptic,
pro-Russia League behind. But Benifei
denied that: “I have had no pressure and
certainly this is not the ground on which
the PD took its decision.” MBR
Creditline: PLAYBOOK, POLITICO SPRL –
Jacopo Barigazzi, Zoya Sheftalovich;
Presentation by CEFIC
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