Italy's Salvini tells Rome to save itself, strikes down support measures

League leader Matteo Salvini blocked measures aimed at transferring part of the City of Rome's debt repayment burden to the central government, setting up a likely showdown with his party's coalition partner, the Five Star Movement, which governs in the capital.

According to ANSA, a four-hour cabinet meeting on Tuesday evening resulted in a tense encounter between Salvini and Five Star leader and deputy premier Luigi di Maio.

Di Maio reportedly arrived late to the meeting after recording a TV show and seeing Salvini say he had struck down the proposed measures.

Salvini argued that the so-called 'Save Rome' measures would mean granting preferential treatment to Rome, with Di Maio retorting that lower interest payments for the capital would bring benefits to other areas as well and vowed to have the measures reinstated when the decree passed through Parliament.

To take note of, debt ratings agency Standard&Poor's was set to evaluate the country's credit worthiness on Friday.

Commenting on the risk of a downgrade to Italy's long-term debt rating out of S&P, analysts at Rabobank judged that unlikely given the "high political hurdle" posed by the risk of stoking "sizeable tension" in Italian debt ahead of the European parliamentary elections in May.

Instead, for now S&P would draw comfort from the decline seen in longer-term Italian government debt yields, although those appeared to already be discounting lower ratings.