ROME - Italian President Sergio gave Friday an exploratory mandate to Roberto Fico, President of the Chamber of Deputies, to explore the conditions for creating a new coalition among the parties belonging to the caretaker Prime Minsiter Giuseppe Conte's cabinet, Quirinale sources have said.

  This is the conclusion of three days of consultations between Presiodent Mattarella and the leaders of the main political parties after the resignation of Sig. Conte following his coalition government losing their absolute majority. Sig. Fico will be given the task of negotiating with the party leaders, including Italia Viva leader Matteo Renzi, who has upped his demands for joining the coalition, having withdrawn his support two weeks ago. If Fico can engineer an agreement between between the coalition parties, Mattarella will most likely give Conte the mandate to form his third coalition government, political pundits say.

  On the third day of discussions the head of state was hoping to reach an agreement between, most importantly, the leaders of the Democratic Party (PD), the 5 Star Movement (M5S), Italia Viva (IV) and Conte, commentators said. Conte's government lost their absolute majority in a vote of confidence triggered when Italia Viva deserted the coalition.

  Matteo Renzi, leader of IV, has said that his party are against giving Conte his office back and requested an exploratory mandate for someone else to look to rebuild a coalition between IV, the Democratic Party, M5S and Free and Equal (LeU), the principal parties of the last coalition. The name suggested by Renzi was that of Roberto Fico.

  The leaders of PD, M5S and LeU, however, would all be happy to reinstate Conte as leader of the coalition, an appealing option to Mattarella, despite Renzi’s protests, as it would avoid the chaos and instability an election would cause at a time of national crisis. 

  “I think that Renzi is smart” PD vice secretary Andrea Orlando has said, “to first of all remain absent, and then hold a vague position on the reinstatement of Conte, as his party holds many different positions. Having maintained this ambiguity, he has guaranteed the unity of Italia Viva.”

  The Democratic Party are keen on having Italia Viva back in the coalition, though M5S are more wary of accepting their conditions, and may be happy to form a coalition without IV, though they might struggle to find a majority.

  The main opposition parties, Forza Italia, the League and Fratelli d’Italia, are still against any coalition with the pro-European parties of the coalition, and are arguing for either a centre-right coalition, though it doesn’t look like they will have the numbers, or an election.

  Discussions will now begin between M5S, Fico's party, and PD, Italia Viva and LeU, the parties most likely to constitute the rest of a coalition concocted by Fico in his role as 'explorer,' seeking to end the government crisis.

  jp-ol