The Daily Telegraph

Warring Italian parties push for another election in July

- By Nick Squires in Rome

A LAST-DITCH effort to form a new Italian government after an inconclusi­ve election two months ago failed yesterday, with the leading parties demanding that the country go back to the polls in July.

The failure to break the impasse came after a long day of talks between all the parties and Sergio Mattarella, Italy’s president, who said that he favoured the creation of a “neutral” government that would remain in place until December at the latest, with another election to be held in 2019.

If there is not enough parliament­ary support for such an administra­tion, then fresh elections could be held in July or the autumn, he said.

Both the anti-establishm­ent Five Star Movement and the hard-right League, who have been arguing for weeks, had earlier rejected the idea of an interim government led by an impartial figure and called for an election on July 8. That would be a first for the country – millions of Italians flock to the beach in the summer, and since the end of the Second World War, elections have always been held in the spring.

“From today, we are in a new election campaign,” Luigi Di Maio, the head of Five Star, told his supporters. “I know we are asking for a big sacrifice from you to go and vote again, but I don’t see any possible alternativ­e.”

 ??  ?? Sergio Mattarella, the Italian president, proposed a neutral, interim government
Sergio Mattarella, the Italian president, proposed a neutral, interim government

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