Italian Senate Speaker asked to explore possibilities of forming government

Rome, April 18 (IANS/AKI) Italy's President Sergio Mattarella on Wednesday gave Senate Speaker Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati until Friday to see if the centre-right alliance and the populist Five-Star Movement can muster the numbers in parliament to govern after last month's inconclusive national election, his office said.

Besides checking if a centre-right-Five-Star coalition government can command a parliamentary majority, Casellati is to establish whether "a mutually agreed nomination" exists for the job of Prime Minister, said Ugo Zampetti, Secretary-General of the Italian presidency, reading from a statement.

"I have thanked President Mattarella for the trust he has placed in me and will keep him constantly updated," said Casellati, who is a member of the conservative Forza Italia party of ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi.

"I undertake this task with the same spirit of public service that I have shown in past weeks as Senate speaker," she said.

Casellati said she would hold the exploratory meetings with the centre-right parties and with Five-Star "in a very short space of time".

Two rounds of talks between Mattarella and party leaders this month failed to end the political stalemate after the split vote in Italy's March 4 poll produced a hung parliament in which populists made strong gains.

Five-Star is the largest parliamentary party after winning almost one-third of votes, while the centre-right alliance is the biggest parliamentary force. The far-right League now leads the centre-right after the party quadrupled its share of votes, while the centre-left Democratic Party has vowed to go into opposition after scoring its worst-ever result (18.72 percent).

Both Five-Star as the largest parliamentary party and the League, as leader of the centre-right alliance - which has the most parliamentary seats - have claimed first bid to try and form a government.

But the main stumbling block in the talks has been Five-Star leader Luigi Di Maio's refusal to govern with convicted fraudster Berlusconi's party and his insistence that Five-Star should lead any government.

The centre-left Democratic Party has the parliamentary numbers to play kingmaker in the formation of a coalition government but has so far vowed to go into opposition after getting just 18 per cent of votes in last month's election - its worst-ever result.

League party leader Matteo Salvini on Wednesday said he welcomed Casellati's exploratory mandate on forming a government between the centre-right alliance and the populist Five-Star Movement.

"The mandate given to The Right Honourable Casellati is good news because a government containing the centre-right and Five-Star is exactly what the Italian people decided," Salvini said in a statement.

"The League is ready to govern today - we just need the other parties to stop squabbling."

--IANS/AKI

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