Hua Hin

[webfact]

Italy's 5-star leader calls for election on June 24

 

FILE PHOTO: Anti-establishment 5-Star Movement Luigi Di Maio smiles during a news conference at the Foreign Press Club in Rome, Italy, March 13, 2018. REUTERS/Tony Gentile/File Photo

 

ROME (Reuters) - The leader of Italy's anti-establishment 5-Star Movement dismissed proposals for a stop-gap government to reform the electoral law and repeated his call for a snap election in June, according to a newspaper interview on Friday.

 

Luigi Di Maio told Il Fatto Quotidiano that an election could be held on June 24, saying that technical objections that more time was needed to organise the vote for Italians abroad were groundless, and clashed with the constitution.

 

President Sergio Mattarella has called a fresh round of consultations with party leaders on May 7 to try to end nine weeks of increasingly fractious political deadlock following inconclusive March elections.

 

Asked if it was not necessary to change the electoral law before returning to the polls, Di Maio replied: "it can't be done, we (the parties) would waste years arguing about it."

 

(Reporting By Gavin Jones)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-05-04