Italy's lower house of parliament speaker Roberto Fico on Tuesday began consultations on a coalition government between the populist Five-Star Movement and the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), following last month's inconclusive national election.
Italy’s president Sergio Mattarella on Monday asked Fico to hold three days of talks with Five-Star and the PD in a bid to end seven weeks of political deadlock since the 4 March election led to a hung parliament.
Acting PD secretary Maurizio Martina said the part would only negotiate with Five-Star if it stopped wooing the far-right League, the biggest member of the right-wing bloc.
League leader Matteo Salvini on Monday called Fico's talks on a Five Star-PD government "a joke".
The PD is divided over a possible tie-up with Five-Star but most of its lawmakers oppose the idea and believe the party should go into opposition after losing the election. It had governed Italy since 2013.
The conservative bloc to which the League belongs won the most seats in parliament in last month's vote while Five-Star became the largest party and the PD's centre-left coalition came a poor third.
Voters punished the PD at the ballot box for Italy's sluggish economic recovery and fears over the number of migrants arriving from Africa - over 600,000 since 2014.
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