Italian populist party leader hopeful of coalition government

Rome   : Luigi Di Maio, leader of the populist Five-Star Movement after the inconclusive March 4 elections, on Friday said he was optimistic that a coalition government could be formed.

"I am hopeful - by nature," he told journalists as he left the city 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 President Sergio Mattarella to find a way out of the post-election deadlock.

Talks led earlier this month by 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 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.

Meanwhile, Salvini said his party will not join any coalition government with the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) after an apparent overture to it by his centre-right political ally Silvio Berlusconi, leader of the conservative Forza Italia party.

"Berlusconi is wrong to say that we need to bring the PD into a government," Salvini said, referring to remarks made an interview on Friday by Berlusconi to La7 TV channel's 'L'Aria che tira' programme.

"He is not respecting the wishes of Italians and if this happens it will be without the League," Salvini said at a furniture fair in Milan.

"I want nothing to do with Matteo Renzi's PD," he said, referring to the party's outgoing leader, who resigned after the centre-left alliance came third in the election, winning just 18 percent of votes in the ballot - its worst-ever result.