Luigi Di Maio, leader of the populist Five-Star Movement – Italy’s biggest party- on Friday said he was optimistic that a coalition government could be formed after the inconclusive 4 March national election.
“I am hopeful – by nature,” Di Maio told journalists as he left Rome for a rally in Italy’s Molise region ahead of regional elections there on Sunday which Five-Star is predicted to win.
Di Maio also said he had “basic” trust in Italy’s president Sergio Mattarella to find a way out of the post-election deadlock.
Talks led earlier this month by Italy’s president Sergio Mattarella and this week by Senate speaker Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati have failed to break the post-election deadlock amid a mesh of seemingly irreconcilable demands by Italy’s political leaders.
Five-Star and the League made strong gains in last month’s election at the expense of established parties, although no party or bloc won an outright majority.
Five-Star is Italy’s biggest party after the March ballot while the centre-right bloc led by far-right League party leader Matteo Salvini has the most parliamentary seats.
Both Five Star and the League have claimed first bid to try and form a government. But negotiations have floundered over Di Maio’s rejection of a tie-up with Forza Italia leader Silvio Berlusconi – Salvini’s coalition partner – who has a tax fraud conviction and is on trial for bribery.
