Mattarella takes 2 days to reflect

(ANSA) - Rome, April 20 - President Sergio Mattarella has decided to take two days to reflect after Senate Speaker Maria Elisabetta Casellati reported back to him on Friday following her exploratory mandate to seek to break Italy's post-election political deadlock. Casellati said she had detected "sparks on which Mattarella will decide" during talks with political parties. 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.