(By Denis Greenan).
President Sergio Mattarella said
Friday that the second round of government-formation
consultations showed that the parties have not made progress
towards the creation of a new executive.
The head of State said he will wait a few days and assess
solutions to break the deadlock following last month's
inconclusive general election.
He said Italy urgently needs a fully functioning government.
"From the way these days' consultations went it has clearly
emerged that the talks between political parties to give life in
Parliament to a majority to back a government has not made
progress," Mattarella said.
"I will wait a few days to decide how to proceed to get out
of the stalemate," he said.
"I pointed out to the various parties the need for our
country to have a government in the fullness of its powers," he
said.
Parties have been negotiating indirectly through the media
since March 4 general election.
The two 'winners', the anti-migrant, Euroskeptic League led
by Matteo Salvini and the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement
(M5S) led by Luigi Di Maio, have been leading the media dance.
Salvini got 17.5% on March 4 to overtake ex-premier Silvio
Berlusconi's centre-right Forza Italia (FI), who got 14%, as top
party on the centre right and become its premier candidate.
The centre-right coalition, which also includes the small
nationalist Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, came out as top
alliance with 37% of the vote.
The M5S got 32.5%, becoming the top individual party by far
and beating the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) of Premier
Paolo Gentiloni into a distant second place.
The PD got 18%, its worst-ever showing, prompting ex-premier
Matteo Renzi to resign as party leader - although he has so far
imposed his line of now remaining in opposition.
Di Maio, for his part, says he must be premier and has
proposed a German-style government contract either to the League
or the PD, saying that Salvini must dump Berlusconi to be a
viable partner for change.
Salvini, who has said he is not insisting on being premier,
is staying loyal to the three-time former premier and has said
he is fed up with Di Maio's vetoes.
Salvini called for "responsibility" amid the ongoing
wrangling between FI and the M5S over the formation of the next
government.
"We are ready," the centre-right coalition's premiership
candidate told Radio Anch'io.
"Of course there are two opposing vetoes by FI and M5S. I
call on everyone to be responsible. If things carry on like
that, if they continue to bicker, the Italians will get fed up,
I will get fed up and there will be new elections in a month,"
Salvini continued.
"So: either they stop it or we go back to the polls."
Di Maio has also tried to entice the PD but the former
governing party, now led by caretaker leader Maurizio Martina,
has repeated it will stay in opposition and lick its wounds.
With the stalemate continuing, Mattarella may try to give a
so-called 'exploratory' mandate to someone above the fray.
An institutional figure such as FI's Senate Speaker Maria
Elisabetta Alberti Casellati has been touted in some parts.
So has the League's deputy leader and Lower House Whip,
Giancarlo Giorgetti.
But Salvini said Friday that handing Giorgetti an exploratory
mandate would be like sending someone on a useless treasure
hunt.
Replying to a question on Giorgetti's being tasked with such
a mandate to try to break the government-formation impasse,
Salvini told TG1 "I play treasure hunts with my kids at the
seaside, the parliament and government are more serious than
treasure hunts".
Salvini stressed that a mandate for Giorgetti would mean
"asking someone to go looking for votes that are not there".
Amid some joshing on social media about the political
jockeying, a piece of street art showing Di Maio, Salvini and
Berlusconi as Renaissance master Caravaggio's famed "Cardsharps"
appeared overnight near the Quirinale presidential palace.
The mural was promptly removed.
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