ROME - Roberto Fico, President of the Chamber of Deputies, continued his consultations with party leaders on Monday, having on Friday been given a mandate by Italian President Sergio Mattarella to explore the conditions for a new coalition. 

  Fico will on Tuesday evening head to the Quirinal Palace to report on his progress to Mattarella, who will hope to decide how to form the coalition and who to lead it.

  Fico has been meeting with the heads of the Democratic Party (PD), the 5 Star Movement (M5S), Italia Viva (IV) and Free and Equal (LeU), as well as other parliamentarians involved in the last coalition, to see if he can engineer a coalition to be led by Giuseppe Conte. 

  Matteo Renzi, leader of IV, is less than keen to enter another coalition led by Conte, though deputies of IV may abandon Renzi if he won’t join coalition. Il Giornale reports that Conte fears Fico may be asked to lead the new coalition, though a poll carried out by Ipsos shows that Conte is still favourite to be leader.

  Of the 15 politicians Fico met on Monday morning, were also representatives from a few smaller parties, including ‘Europesti’ and ‘Per Le Autonomie’, thought to be included in discussions in order to bolster the possible coalition to protect it from Renzi’s unreliability and indecision. 

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