Italian President holds last-ditch talks on a government

Rome, May 7 (IANS/AKI) Italy's President Sergio Mattarella on Monday began a final round of talks with party leaders aimed at forming a coalition government after the inconclusive March 4 national election led to political deadlock.

Mattarella on Monday held final talks with the conservative coalition - including Forza Italia, the far-right League party and the rightwing Brothers of Italy party - as well as with the populist Five-Star Movement, the centre-left Democratic Party and other Italian parties.

He was due to wrap up consultations with a meeting with the lower house of parliament Speaker Roberto Fico and with Senate speaker Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati, according to a schedule published on the presidential palace website.

If Monday's talks fail, Mattarella is expected to propose a transitional government, most likely led by a non-political figure. Such an executive would be tasked with approving the 2019 budget before new elections are held, probably in the autumn, according to analysts.

Successive rounds of talks held by Mattarella, Fico and Casellati with Italy's main political forces since the March poll collapsed amid increasingly fractious stalemate and a mesh of seemingly irreconcilable demands.

However, Forza Italia party and its coalition allies oppose a caretaker cabinet and want to try and muster a parliamentary majority, party sources told AKI after their talks with Mattarella.

Luigi Di Maio, leader of Five-Star - Italy's largest party since the March 4 national vote - has demanded fresh elections be held in July if Mattarella fails to broker an agreement to form a viable government.

Mattarella is seeking to end two months of increasingly fractious political deadlock amid a web of apparently irreconcilable political demands after the March vote led to a hung parliament and several earlier rounds of talks collapsed.

--IANS/AKI

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