Italy's president Sergio Mattarella on Wednesday gave Senate speaker Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati until Friday to see if the centre-right alliance and the populist Five-Star Movement can muster the numbers in parliament to govern after last month's inconclusive national election, Mattarella's office said.
Besides checking if a centre-right-Five-Star coalition government can command a parliamentary majority, Casellati is to establish whether "a mutually agreed nomination" exists for the job of prime minister, said Ugo Zampetti, secretary-general of the Italian presidency, reading from a statement.
"I have thanked President Mattarella for the trust he has placed in me and will keep him constantly updated," said Casellati, who is a member of the conservative Forza Italia party of ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi.
"I undertake this task with the same spirit of public service that I have shown in past weeks as Senate speaker," Casellati said.
Casellati said she would hold the exploratory meetings with the centre-right parties and with Five-Star "in a very short space of time".
Two rounds of talks between Mattarella and party leaders this month failed to end the political stalemate after the split vote in Italy's 4 March poll produced a hung parliament in which populists made strong gains.
Five-Star is the largest parliamentary party after winning almost one-third of votes, while the centre-right alliance is the biggest parliamentary force. The far-right League now leads the centre-right after the party quadrupled its share of votes, while the centre-left Democratic Party has vowed to go into opposition after scoring its worst-ever result (18.72 percent).
.jpg)
.jpg)
