Senate Speaker Maria Elisabetta
Casellati will hold a second round of talks on Thursday as part
of a mandate handed her by President Sergio Mattarella to see if
it is possible for her to break Italy's post-election political
deadlock.
Her 'exploratory' mandate involves verifying the possibility
of seeing if it possible to form a government made up of the
centre right, the coalition that came first in last month's
inconclusive general election, and the anti-establishment 5-Star
Movement (M5S), the biggest single party in the new parliament.
The first round of talks with Casellati on Wednesday hit a
brick wall when M5S leader Luigi Di Maio reiterated his refusal
to form a government with the centre right as a whole and said
he would only strike a deal with the anti-migrant, Euroskeptic
League.
Di Maio also gave League leader Matteo Salvini a one-week
deadline to decide whether to dump his alliance partner,
ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right Forza Italia, to
make a deal possible.
Casellati will hold talks with the leaders of the centre
right, who will come together on Thursday after going separately
as individual parties in Wednesday consultations, at 14:30.
The Speaker, an FI member, is set to meet an M5S delegation
at 17:30.
Casellati must report back to Mattarella on Friday.
League leader Matteo Salvini appealed for an end to bickering
between political parties ahead of the talks.
"Italy cannot wait," Salvini said in Catania on the fringes
of meeting with workers for supermarket chain Auchan.
"There are no developments. If everyone sticks to their
positions, situations that there is no response to come about.
"I'll see if I can cook up something on top of the lots that
has already been given by the League.
"We have contemplated being part of a government, overcoming
the nos, the quarrels and the squabbles.
"I don't lay down any ultimatums. Let's see if I can convince
the others".
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