Mr Di Maio, leader of the 5-Star Movement (5SM), was talking hours after League leader Mr Salvini launched a stinging criticism of 5SM for “betraying Italians” after his party’s 14 elected European Parliament representatives opted to back Ms von der Leyen, unlike the 28 League MEPs. The 33-year-old said: ”The League’s attitude risks isolating Italy in Europe.” Ms von der Leyen, who previously served as Germany’s defence minister, is due to take the helm of the Commission, the EU executive, in November, after scraping over the line with 383 votes – just nine more than the minimum number required.
The clash within Italy’s ruling coalition over the EU vote could endanger Rome’s hopes of securing a top job in the new EU executive, political sources told Reuters.
The League, led by Matteo Salvini, who is also Italy’s Interior Minister, emerged as the country’s largest party in May’s European elections, and Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has said that it was up to the League to pick the country’s commissioner.
Rome’s hope was to obtain the competition portfolio with League’s cabinet secretary Giancarlo Giorgetti as a front runner.
In an interview with state-owned broadcaster RAI 1, Di Maio said that the League’s EU lawmakers did not support the German candidate as they had not received guarantees over the new Italian member.
Mr Salvini, 46, tweeted today: “Betraying the vote of the Italians who wanted change, M5S voted for the President of the new European Commission proposed by Merkel and Macron, along with Renzi and Berlusconi.
“A very serious choice, other than democracy and transparency.”
Mr Salving is a vocal Eurosceptic, having launched a number of high-profile attacks on Ms von der Leyen’s predecessor Jean-Claude Juncker in the past.
These have largely been centred on the ongoing wrangle over Italy’s attempts to run a budget deficit amounting to 2.4 percent of GDP – which would have amounted to roughly almost £40 billion (€44 billion) annually.
Speaking in April, Mr Salvini said: “Italians won’t take lessons from Juncker.
“Europe has certainly not helped Italy in recent years, on the contrary it has damaged Italy.”
The latest spat is indicative of the increasingly tense relationship between League and 5SM, which formed their coalition after the Italian general election last year.
Speaking to Express.co.uk in April, Nicola Chelotti, a lecturer at Loughborough University and an expert in Italian politics, said “cracks” in the relationship between the two parties were becoming increasingly apparent.
He said: “The main reason for me is that in all the polls League is doing much better than 5 Star – so that Di Maio and the others have started to differentiate themselves from Salvini hoping to get some more votes.
“I’m not sure that this strategy will be successful – it might be too late for them.
“Salvini is having the upper hand, electorally and rhetorically.”
In contrast, Mr Conte, while nominally Prime Minister, remains a somewhat peripheral figure who is generally regarded as a something of a figurehead, with Mr Chelotti saying “not a very relevant actor” and “a big personality”.