Casellati gets exploratory mandate

(ANSA) - Rome, April 18 - President Sergio Mattarella called Senate Speaker Elisabetta Alberti Casellati to his office on Wednesday and gave her a mandate to see if it is possible to end Italy's post-election political deadlock.
    Italy does not look close to having a new government a month and a half after its inconclusive election on March 4.
    Last week Mattarella said the political parties had not made significant progress towards the formation of a new government after a second round of formal political consultations. The head of State department's Secretary General Ugo Zampetti said Casellati had been given the task of "verifying the existence of parliamentary majority between the parties of the centre-right coalition and the M5S".
    The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S), the biggest single party in the new parliament, has so far refused to do a deal with the whole centre right, the biggest coalition. The M5S has called on the anti-migrant, Euroskeptic League, the lead party in the centre right, to drop its ally, Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia, to make a deal possible, but so far it has refused. Zampetti said Casellati, an FI member, had been requested to give "an agreed-on indication for the awarding of a mandate of premier to form the government.
    "The president asked the Senate Speaker to report back by Friday," he added. The centre-left Democratic Party (PD), which has led the last three Italian governments, has said it will be in the opposition after it slumped to its worst-ever showing in last month's vote.