Italy's newly elected President Sergio Mattarella begin a series of meetings on Tuesday with opposition leaders who are pushing back against major Constitutional reforms proposed by the government of Premier Matteo Renzi.
Opposition leaders were sounding upbeat after the first meetings, with some saying they believe the sessions will be helpful.
One of the first to request a meeting with Mattarella was Renato Brunetta, the Lower House whip for ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right Forza Italia (FI) party.
He emerged from his session with the head of State, saying he believes the president will do "everything" to restore dialogue between the government and opposition parties over Constitutional reforms. "President Mattarella said he hoped that the dialogue on the reforms can resume," Brunetta said. "Knowing him, he'll use all the instruments given in the Constitution to restore a climate of dialogue".
Mattarella, a former Constitutional Court justice and minister for the once-dominant but now-defunct Christian Democrat (DC) party, was Renzi's choice for the post vacated when ex-president Giorgio Napolitano resigned citing age and health concerns.
He has been quiet on the content of the opposition meetings, appearing to in some ways see them as an opportunity to meet with politicians of all stripes.
Many in the opposition are doing their best to halt Renzi's reforms.
Last week, opposition parties snubbed several votes in the Lower House on the government's Constitutional reform bill, which includes a controversial transformation of the Senate into a leaner assembly of local-government representatives with limited lawmaking powers.
The boycotts were a response to the use of non-stop 'river' sessions in parliament, which limit MPs' ability to file amendments, to combat obstructionist tactics used by opponents to the reform.
The Constitutional reform bill is the result of the so-called Nazareno Pact Premier Matteo Renzi sealed last year with Berlusconi.
But the FI has said it considers the pact dead after it disagreed with Renzi's centre-left Democratic Party (PD) promoting Mattarella to become the country's new head of State last month.
Berlusconi was opposed to the election of Mattarella, while several members from both the PD and FI were opposed to the entire Nazareno pact, complaining that it was a mistake to do a deal with the other side.
Meanwhile, Nichi Vendola of the Left, Ecology and Freedom (SEL) party, complained that Parliament has been "humiliated" by Renzi's aggressive promotion of his Senate reforms through such measures as emergency decrees and confidence votes.
Vendola, among opposition leaders who asked to meet Mattarella last week after the government's 'river' debates, said Renzi could not "govern by 'coups de main' and accelerations that gag parliament, reducing it to a "vote factory".
Vendola said SEL expected more "seriousness and respect" from the premier.
Beppe Grillo, the leader of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S), said Tuesday that he will meet with Mattarella even though M5S's lawmakers did not vote for Mattarella.
But after the 73-year-old prevailed in the vote, Grillo sent a message wishing him well and asking for a meeting.
Grillo seemed pleased by the response.
"I want to assure you that I will be pleased to receive you soon on a date that our offices can agree," Mattarella wrote in his reply, which Grillo posted in his popular blog Tuesday, one day after it arrived. The M5S had a tense relationship with Mattarella's predecessor Napolitano saying he was not a fair arbiter of Italian politics.
It unsuccessfully tried to have him impeached.
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