Italy coalition talks stall after deadlock on premier

By Baris Seckin

ROME (AA) - Coalition talks in Italy between populist Five Star Movement (M5S) and center-left Democratic Party (PD) have stalled, as former insisted on keeping Giuseppe Conte as the prime minister of the country.

In a statement, M5S said the four-hour-long meeting between M5S and PD on Monday produced no results.

The statement said M5S will not hold any new meeting with PD unless it says "yes" to the premiership of Conte.

M5S also cancelled the meeting with PD which was planned to be held on Tuesday noon.

"If they want to go to elections, they should state that openly. We remind everyone that M5S is the largest political party in the parliament," the statement said referring to PD.

Talks to form a new coalition started in Italy last week after the resignation of Conte, as the coalition of populist M5S and far-right League Party collapsed.

Tensions within the coalition between League party and M5S had mounted over an infrastructure project involving a high-speed rail link with France.

Both parties blamed each other for the deep divisions in the coalition, prompting League leader Matteo Salvini to call for new elections.

M5S and the League party had formed a coalition government on June 1, 2018 under the leadership of technocrat Conte.

* Writing by Fatih Hafiz Mehmet