Martina sounds out PD ahead of Fico (3)

(ANSA) - Rome, April 24 - Centre-left Democratic Party (PD) caretaker leader Maurizio Martina on Tuesday morning sounded out key PD players ahead of a meeting this afternoon with Lower House Speaker Roberto Fico who has been given a mandate to explore a possible government between the PD and Fico's anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S).
    Martina has been hearing from regional chiefs, the main PD mayors and regional governors, as well as leading figures in the party, sources said.
    A majority of the PD still loyal to ex-leader and ex-premier Matteo Renzi is dead set against an alliance with the M5s and wants to stay in opposition.
    Minority leaders including Culture Minister Dario Franceschini and Justice Minister Andrea Orlando are reportedly more amenable to talks with the M5S.
    Franceschini said in a newspaper interview Tuesday that the PD should talk to the M5S about forming a new government "without prejudice".
    Fico on Monday received his exploratory mandate from President Sergio Mattarella to sound out the possibility of a government between the M5S and the PD, which have been traditional opponents.
    The majority of the PD, loyal to Renzi, are against all talk of an alliance.
    But Franceschini told La Repubblica that the PD has the "obligation" to talk to the M5S "without prejudice", keeping the party "united" starting with its "most influential" leader, Renzi.
    Renzi quit after the PD slumped to its worst-ever showing, 18%, in the March 4 general election - where the M5s became the biggest single party with 32% and the centre right with 37% the biggest coalition.
    Franceschini told La Repubblica that the PD must "go and see the (M5S) papers" and assess the feasibility of a government-formation accord.
    As for the possibility of accepting M5S leader Luigi Di Maio as premier, Franceschini stressed to the Rome daily "let's take it gradually".
    He said "let's see the programmes and also how we might achieve an agreement".
    Now that the country has been "saved from a populist and sovereignist government" after a possible M5S alliance with the anti-migrant Euroskeptic League of Matteo Salvini was scotched, Franceschini said, "the mandate for Fico puts a new question to the PD".
    He said "we are called to a trial of responsibility" and urged the party to "put its proposals into the field, as (caretaker leader Maurizio) Martina has done" with three proposals on poverty, families and work.
    Fico was called to negotiate after a bid by Senate Speaker Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati, to sound out the possibility of a centre-right-M5S government, failed.
    It foundered on the M5S's opposition to the League's ally, former premier Silvio Berlusconi.
    Berlusconi's centre-right Forza Italia (FI) party got 14% in the general election, being overtaken by Salvini's rightwing populist League with 17.5%.
    Salvini has threatened to "make a trip to Rome", seen by some as an echo of Mussolini's March on Rome, if he is excluded from government.