Senate Speaker Elisabetta Alberti
Casellati said she had detected "sparks on which (President
Sergio) Mattarella will decide" on Friday after reporting back
to the head of State, who gave her an exploratory mandate to see
if she could break Italy's post-election deadlock earlier this
week.
Her 'exploratory' mandate involved verifying the possibility
of forming 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.
On Thursday that M5S reiterated that it was against forming a
government with the centre right as a whole and was only willing
to hold talks with the League, not with its alliance partners,
Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia and the rightwing Brothers of
Italy (FdI) party.
But it also said it would not consider external support of a
M5S-League government from FI and FdI to be "hostile".
"Over the last few days I performed the mandate entrusted to
me with dedication, trying to favour constructive dialogue
between the political parties capable of producing a
parliamentary majority with the perimeter indicated by
Mattarella," Casellati said.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
