Italy’s president has asked the head of the lower house of parliament to see whether the 5-Star Movement (M5S) and centre-left Democratic Party (PD) could form a coalition government but initial reaction pointed to a mission impossible.
President Sergio Mattarella, who is struggling to end seven weeks of political deadlock following inconclusive elections last month, asked lower house speaker Roberto Fico to report back to him on Thursday with his findings.
“I will start work immediately,” said Fico, an M5S member, who faces fierce misgivings within the two camps about any possible tie-up.
PD president Matteo Orfini quickly dampened any hope of success.
“There are no conditions for a political accord between the PD and the M5S. We’ve always said it, and we are repeating it,” Orfini said.
Acting PD secretary Maurizio Martina said that the only way the PD would negotiate with the M5S would be if the latter stopped talking to the far-right League, the largest member of the right-wing bloc.
Senate leader Elisabetta Casellati last week failed to broker a deal between the M5S and the alliance of rightist parties led by the League after receiving a similar, highly focused mandate from the president, whose options are rapidly diminishing.
The bloc of conservative parties, including the League, won the most seats at the March 4 vote, while the M5S emerged as the largest single party.
Both fell well short of a parliamentary majority.
The M5S has said it is willing to work with the League, but not its allies, who include former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.
The League has so far rejected this demand, but continues to repeat its hope for a coalition deal.
The PD, which had governed Italy since 2013, lost heavily last month as voters snubbed it over the slow pace of economic recovery and over fears of rising immigrant numbers from Africa.
It has said repeatedly that it wants to move into opposition, but the party is divided and some of its leaders have said it should be open-minded about its old foe M5S.
Mattarella announced his latest effort to end the deadlock the day after the centre-right won local elections in the tiny southern region of Molise, giving the bloc a boost as jostling continues in Rome over coalition building.
“An important national signal has emerged from Molise. A united centre-right has the ability to win the backing of Italians to rule both the regions and the country,” Berlusconi said in a statement yesterday.
The centre-right candidate backed by nine parties won 43% of the vote in Molise, ahead of the candidate for the anti-establishment M5S, with 38%.
The result was a setback for 5-Star, which had hoped to gain control of its first regional government after emerging as the largest party at the national ballot.
In Molise it was again by far the biggest party, with no other group reaching 10%, but it fell back markedly from the 44% that it took in the same region in March.
If all efforts to break the Rome stalemate fail, Mattarella could try to put together a government of technocrats with a limited mandate, including electoral reform, to prepare for early elections in the spring of 2019.
Failing that, his last option would be to call elections in the autumn of this year.


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