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.
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