ROME – The Five Star Movement fought hard on Wednesday to retrace the steps of their collapsed coalition, and are now willing to form an alliance without the controversial Paolo Savona as economy minister, political sources said. Italian Prime Minister designate Carlo Cottarelli waits on developments in the renewed political government hypothesis whilst the League stand firm against the proposition.

 Anti-migrant, Eurosceptic League leader Matteo Salvini distanced his party from a revised alliance, preferring a swift return to the polls. “We are not at the market,” Salvini said, stressing that the League “won't sell out Italy.”

 On Tuesday evening, Five Star leader Luigi Di Maio disclosed that the radical party would be willing to ditch its demand that Eurosceptic politician Paolo Savona be economy minister, and are now looking to slot the 81-year old into a different role, with Cottarelli considered as a candidate to fill the void.

 The shift in stance came as a dramatic U-turn, just 48 hours after Di Maio had called for the head of state’s impeachment. Yet, Five Star now insist that the idea is “no longer on the table.”

Italian President Sergio Mattarella is said to be pondering over Di Maio's proposal “very carefully,” with Cottarelli emerging as a possible candidate to fill the void in the treasury.

 Cottarelli visited the Quirinal Palace early on Wednesday for “informal talks” with Mattarella amid speculation that he is having difficulty in putting together a cabinet. He later returned to Montecitorio Palace, the seat of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, holding back progression towards an interim, technocrat government whilst the Di Maio-Salvini wrestle resumes.

 Growing increasingly impatient, Salvini underlined that “the same team” must be recalled with Savona retained, since he considers him to be the only man for the job.

 As the toppled coalition squabble over a potential revival, indicators show that this may include the centre-right Fratelli d’Italia party, led by Georgia Meloni, hoping to reinforce what had been a slender majority in the Senate.

 “We are willing to start again where we left off, to reopen a channel of dialogue,” M5S sources said after Meloni expressed her readiness to break off from an alliance with Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia.

 Salvini, however, appeared less drawn to the idea of the bolstered coalition’s re-emergence, instead pushing for re-elections in September after his party clambered up recent opinion polls.

 “This is my appeal: Sergio Mattarella will give us the date of the vote and the Italians will do justice on what happened,” said league leader Matteo Salvini speaking in Pisa as a hectic day of political horse-trading unravelled with Mattarella struggling to keep order amid the apparent chaos.

 jp-af