Italy's M5S Adheres To $875 Basic Income Promise Amid Government Crisis - Lawmaker

The pledge of Italy's Five Star Movement (M5S) to ensure the guaranteed basic income of at least 780 euros ($875) per month for citizens remains in place even in spite of the party being at odds with its coalition partner, the Lega party, M5S member and chairman of the Italian lower house's Constitutional Affairs Committee, Giuseppe Brescia, said on Friday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 09th August, 2019) The pledge of Italy's Five Star Movement (M5S) to ensure the guaranteed basic income of at least 780 Euros ($875) per month for citizens remains in place even in spite of the party being at odds with its coalition partner, the Lega party, M5S member and chairman of the Italian lower house's Constitutional Affairs Committee, Giuseppe Brescia, said on Friday.

A rift between the two coalition partners deepened this week after the M5S voted against a costly Turin-Lyon high-speed rail link project backed by Lega. Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who heads the Lega, said on Thursday that he had informed Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte of the need to organize a snap election, given that the parliament no longer had a majority to support the government. Earlier in the day, Lega said it would submit a motion of no confidence in Conte to the upper house.

"No one can cancel out the 900,000 applications for the citizenship wage and the citizenship [minimum] pension that have been granted over the last few months. There is hope and dignity behind each of these numbers," Brescia said, as quoted by the ANSA news agency.

The guaranteed basic monthly income of 780 euros was one of the M5S's election promises, with unemployed adults with an income or pension below the poverty line eligible for it. According to various estimates cited by the media, the basic income would cost the already troubled Italian budget up to 15 billion euros annually. M5S leader Luigi Di Maio said earlier that if passed, the relevant law would take several years to come into force.

In the 2018 general election, the M5S won 32.7 percent of the vote and 227 seats, but was short of the majority and had to enter a coalition with the Lega to form a government.