and stability he could not allow this. Moreover, in the same speech he affirmed that a possible abandonment of the euro had never been declared during the electoral campaign. On the following day, Mattarella gave Carlo Cottarelli, a former director of the International Monetary Fund, the task of forming a new government. On 28 May 2018, the Democratic Party (PD) announced that it would abstain from voting for Cottarelli, while the Five Star Movement and the center-right parties Forza Italia (FI), Brothers of Italy (FdI) and the League announced their vote against. Cottarelli was expected to submit his list of ministers for approval to President Mattarella on 29 May. However, on 29 and 30 May he held only informal consultations with the President, waiting for the formation of a "political government". Meanwhile, Matteo Salvini and Luigi Di Maio announced their willingness to restart the negotiations to form a political government; Giorgia Meloni, leader of FdI, gave her support to the initiative. On 31 May, the Five Star Movement and the Lega Nord reached an agreement on the new government, without Paolo Savona as finance minister (who would become Minister of European Affairs instead), and with Giuseppe Conte at its head. Party's developments Along with the membership recruitment of the League in the Centre-North, in 2018 the party launched a parallel membership recruitment in the Centre-South under the name of "League for Salvini Premier" (LSP), practically supplanting the Us with Salvini movement. The LSP, whose platform had been published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale in December 2017 and had been described as a "parallel party", might eventually replace both the LN and NcS, which would be merged into one. In the meantime, the parties' joint parliamentary groups were named "League–Salvini Premier" in the Chamber and "League–Salvini Premier–Sardinian Action Party" in the Senate. According to news sources, all this is closely related to the seizure by the judiciary of the bank accounts of the LN, after the conviction of Bossi and Belsito for fraud (see Lega Nord#From Bossi to Maroni). If the seizure is confirmed, extended to the bank accounts of the party's national sections or even involves any political entity featuring "Lega" in its name, Salvini might launch a brand-new party and absorb most of the centre-right parties into it. On 22 February 2019, the Italian magazine L'espresso published an investigation revealing a 3 million euro funding scheme, paid for by Kremlin-linked