Centre right meet on Speakerships (3)

(ANSA) - Rome, March 21 - The centre-right alliance that was one of the two winners of Italy's inconclusive general election met in Rome Wednesday to assess the state of negotiations over parliamentary Speakers.
    The alliance got 37% of the vote to become the top coalition while the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) became the top party with 32% of the vote.
    Within the centre right, anti-migrant Euroskeptic League leader Matteo Salvini more than tripled their vote to 17.5%, overtaking Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right Forza Italia (FI) which got 14%.
    Salvini thus became the centre-right premier candidate.
    Like Salvini, M5S leader Luigi Di Maio says he has a mandate to govern despite not getting a majority.
    Also meeting with Salvini and Berlusconi Wednesday were rightist nationalist Brothers of Italy (FdI) leader Giorgia Meloni and the leader of a small centrist group Us for Italy (NPI), Raffaele Fitto.
    Talks between the League and the M5S on parliamentary Speakers are expected to agree on giving the Senate one to FI and the Lower House one to the M5S, according to political pundits. The M5S has vetoed FI's Paolo Romani as Senate Speaker because of a criminal conviction for misappropriation involving the use of a municipal cellphone.
    For the moment the centre right is sticking to Romani as its candidate but is expected to switch candidates to appease the M5S.
    The Speakerships are expected to be agreed by Saturday.
    Their election will be the first act of the new parliament which sits on Friday.
    The outlook for government formation talks is bleaker with no majority alliance in the offing.
    Pundits say there may be a 'president's government' backed by most groups with a limited mandate to change the electoral law so as to produce a winner and pass other essential legislation like the budget.