A solution to Italy's
post-election stalemate is swiftly needed, Premier Paolo
Gentiloni said during a visit to Romania Thursday.
"Italy cannot afford to stay out of the dynamics that are
mapping the future of the EU and the EU cannot afford to face
the debate without Italy," Gentiloni said on the day German
Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron
are set to compare notes on EU reform.
"The current government is working, no one has pulled the
plug. But we certainly need a political solution swiftly that
will give certainty to Italy's role".
Government-formation efforts have bogged down due to the
anti-establishment 5-Star Movement's (M5S) boycott on Silvio
Berlusconi coming along as part of an alliance with the
anti-migrant Euroskeptic League.
After two fruitless rounds of consultations, President Sergio
Mattarella gave an exploratory mandate to Senate Speaker Maria
Elisabetta Alberti Casellati to see if she could persuade the
M5S to drop its opposition to Berlusconi, leader of her
centre-right Forza Italia (FI) party.
But her bid is likely to fail and another exploratory mandate
to be issued to House Speaker Roberto Fico, possibly to explore
an alliance between the M5S and the centre-left Democratic
Party, which is torn about joining a possible government.
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