New election if no M5S-PD agreement - Di Maio

(ANSA) - Rome, April 26 - 5-Star Movement (M5S) leader Luigi Di Maio said Thursday that Italy will have to have new elections if his anti-establishment group is unable to reach an agreement with the Democratic Party (PD) for a new government. Di Maio admitted there were differences with the centre-left party but added "let's think about the country" after consultations with Lower House Speaker Roberto Fico as part of the latter's exploratory mandate to try to break Italy's post-election political deadlock with a PD-M5S government.
    Di Maio said he wanted to forge a good government contract with the PD. "We have 32% (of the vote), we're not autonomous and we are trying to get a good contract that can solve Italians' problems," he said.
    He added that he understood dissent among party members about a potential agreement. Last week Senate Speaker Maria Elisabetta Casellati failed to make a breakthrough with a similar exploratory mandate to Fico's.
    Casellati's 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 M5S, the biggest single party in the new parliament. The PD, which led the last three Italian governments, had pledged to stay in opposition after registering its worst-ever showing in last-month's inconclusive general election. But caretaker PD leader Maurizio Martina opened up to possible dialogue after the first round of talks with Fico on Tuesday, saying he considered it a "development" that Di Maio has closed off the option of forming a government with the rightwing, Euroskeptic League, the lead party in the centre right. Martina said Thursday that the centre-left group will hold a meeting of its national directorate on May 3 to decide whether and how to take part in government-formation talks with the M5S.