President Sergio Mattarella on
Thursday started a round of formal consultations on the
formation of a new government after last month's general
election, which was won by an alliance led by Giorgia Meloni's
right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party.
The consultations began on Thursday morning with talks with the
Senate Speaker Ignazio La Russa and Lower House Speaker Lorenzo
Fontana.
Mattarella will meet the opposition parties separately later on
Thursday - the Green-Italian Left group, the centrist
Azione-Italia Viva partnership, the 5-Star Movement (M5S) and
the centre-left Democratic Party.
On Friday the parties of the a Meloni's coalition, which also
includes ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia and Matteo
Salvini's League, will go together as a unit to have their
meeting with the head of State.
There had been doubts about whether the right-wing allies would
take part in the consultations as a united bloc following
tension between Meloni and Berlusconi over the government team.
But Berlusconi has confirmed that FI will not take part in the
talks separately and will ask Mattarella to give Meloni a
mandate to form a new government along with the rest of the
alliance.
She may get the mandate on Friday evening.
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