Not even a glass of red eases Italy’s government impasse

MILAN – Italy’s government impasse apparently won’t be resolved over a glass of Amarone.

The leaders of the populist 5-Star Movement, Luigi Di Maio, and the far-right League, Matteo Salvini, both visited Italy’s premier Vinitaly wine fair in Verona on Sunday — but not even the prospect of a glass of Italian wine could get the two to meet face-to-face. Salvini had proposed a meeting away from Rome’s political jockeying a month after elections resulted in a hung parliament.

But Di Maio refused: “Wine is … a strategic sector for the country. But you do not make government pacts here.”

Salvini shot back that “a glass of red could do him good,” referring to Di Maio’s insistence that any government with Salvini’s centre-right bloc not include former Premier Silvio Berlusconi.