Italian populist leader calls for snap elections in June

Rome, April 30 (IANS/AKI) Italian grassroots Five-Star Movement leader Luigi Di Maio urged Matteo Salvini, leader of the country's far-right League party, to join his call for early elections in June amid ongoing political stalemate since last month's inconclusive vote.

"At this point for me there is no other solution. We have to go back to the polls as soon as possible," Di Maio said on Facebook, blaming centre-left and centre-right parties for refusing to negotiate with his party.

Five-Star is the biggest party after the March 4 election and the centre-right alliance led by Salvini is the largest political bloc in the hung parliament.

"Let's ask together to go and vote," Di Maio said in an appeal to Salvini, whose conservative coalition won regional elections in the southern Molise region and the northeast Friuli-Venezia Giulia region this month.

Efforts start talks on a government between Five Star and the centre-left Democratic Party have been thrown into disarray by ex-Premier and former party leader Matteo Renzi, who said on Sunday that his party's executive should reject the talks when it meets later this week.

Acting Democratic Party leader Maurizio Martina said on Monday it was "impossible to lead the party" after Renzi's remarks. The party came a distant third in the March vote but has the numbers in parliament to play kingmaker.

Italy has had a caretaker government since the March 4 election. President Sergio Mattarella has failed to end the deadlock despite several rounds of talks with party leaders this month.

--IANS/AKI

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