Swift political solution needed says Gentiloni (3)

(ANSA) - Bucharest, April 19 - 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.