Rome May 7 (IANS/AKI) Italian lawmakers must accept a caretaker government that will administer a revote Italy s President Sergio Mattarella said on Monday after his last-ditch talks with political leaders failed to broker a deal on a viable government.
The cabinet of centre-left Premier Paolo Gentiloni cannot continue in office "as it represents a parliamentary majority that no longer exists.
"I belive it is better to move towards fresh elections under a caretaker government " he said.
Mattarella ruled out a snap vote in June saying there was not enough time to organise one. But he did not rule out July polls which the leaders of Italy s populist Five-Star Movement and the far-right League party are now urging.
"An election could be held at the height of summer but until now this has been avoided as it is a difficult time for Italians to vote but a date could be set in the autumn " Mattarella said.
Five-Star leader Luigi Di Maio and League leader Matteo Salvini said on Monday a new national ballot should be held on July 8 - a demand that one of the centre-left Democratic Party s founders lawmaker Ettore Rosato slammed as "arrogant".
Five Star is the largest party and the League is the dominant party in the centre-right alliance - the biggest parliamentary bloc - after the inconclusive March 4 vote in which populist rightwing parties made strong gains.
The Democratic Party s centre-left coalition which has ruled Italy since 2013 came a distant third in the March vote and declined to take the Five-Star Movement into government during previous failed talks.
Mattarella on Monday held final talks with the conservative coalition - including Forza Italia the far-right League party and the rightwing Brothers of Italy party - as well as with the Five-Star Movement the Democratic Party and other Italian parties.
He wrapped up consultations with a meeting with the lower house of parliament Speaker Roberto Fico and with Senate speaker Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati according to a schedule published on the presidential palace website.
Successive rounds of talks held by Mattarella Fico and Casellati with Italy s main political forces since the March poll collapsed amid increasingly fractious stalemate and a mesh of seemingly irreconcilable demands.
However Forza Italia party and its coalition allies oppose a caretaker cabinet and want to try and muster a parliamentary majority party sources told AKI after their talks with Mattarella.
Mattarella is seeking to end two months of increasingly fractious political deadlock amid a web of apparently irreconcilable political demands after the March vote led to a hung parliament and several earlier rounds of talks collapsed.
--IANS/AKI
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