Di Maio gives Salvini ultimatum after Casellati gets exploratory mandate

(ANSA) - Rome, April 18 - The League and the 5-Star Movement continued to squabble on Wednesday after President Sergio Mattarella gave Senate Speaker Elisabetta Alberti Casellati a mandate to see if it is possible to end Italy's post-election political deadlock.
    Italy does not look close to having a new government a month and a half after its inconclusive election on March 4.
    Casellati had been given the task of "verifying the existence of parliamentary majority between the parties of the centre-right coalition and the M5S".
    But the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S), the biggest single party in the new parliament, is refusing to do a deal with the whole centre right, the biggest coalition. The M5S has called on the anti-migrant, Euroskeptic League, the lead party in the centre right, to drop its ally, Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia, to make a deal possible, but so far it has refused. M5S leader Luigi Di Maio said the group's stance had not changed after talks with Casellati on Wednesday.
    "Once again we reiterated that the M5S is ready to sign a contract of government with the League and not with the entire centre right," Di Maio said. "The centre right is an electoral artifice for us".
    Di Maio said League leader Matteo Salvini has until the end of this week to decide whether to dump FI. "Salvini has the opportunity to gain awareness of the fact that the only parties capable of dialoguing and signing a contract of government are the M5S and the League," Di Maio said.
    For his part, Salvini said he thinks Di Maio does not want to govern Italy or has decided to try to form an executive with the centre-left Democratic Party (PD). "We'll repeat what we have been saying for a month (at consultations with Casellati)," Salvini said. "The two groups that won have the duty to govern, but if everyone sticks to their positions, we won't get anywhere. "We are ready to do everything, except govern with the PD. "Di Maio keeps saying either I call the shots of nothing is doing. "It almost seems to me that he doesn't want to govern or has chosen the PD".