The leader of Italy's populist Five-Star Movement on Friday urged new national elections to be held in June after two months of increasingly fractious political deadlock since the inconclusive 4 March vote.
"I hope no one will opose this and that we will return to the ballot box as soon as possible," Luigi Di Maio told reporters at the Italian parliament.
"If the other parties allow President (Sergio) Mattarella to form a stopgap government, they will betray the Italian people," he said.
Di Maio suggested 24 June as a possible date for a new national election.
Di Maio's comments came after the centre-left Democratic Party (PD)'s executive on Thursday voted unanimously against entering a coalition with Five-Star or with the centre-right alliance.
Mattarella has called for a fresh round of consultations on Monday in a last-ditch attempt to get the parties to agree a deal to form a government. If these talks fail, then Mattarella is likely to seek a transitional government, most likely led by a non-political figure.
Such a government would be tasked with approving the 2019 budget before new elections are held, probably in the autumn, according to analysts.
Five-Star is Italy's biggest parliamentary party and the conservative alliance is the largest political bloc after the March election in which rightist and populist parties made strong gains. The PD's centre-left coalition came a distant third but has enough lawmakers to play kingmaker in a tie-up.
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