Italian president says wants to broad-based govt. to take office

SMA NEWS – ROME

Italian President Sergio Mattarella said on Tuesday he wanted to appoint a new government that he hoped would win broad support in parliament after talks aimed at reviving the previous coalition collapsed.

Mattarella, the supreme arbiter of Italian politics, said he did not want to call early elections, arguing that the country needed a strong administration to deal with the coronavirus pandemic and to draw up recovery plans for the economy.

As a result, he said he wanted a “high-profile” administration to take office that could rely on cross-party backing to tackle the health emergency. Such a government would almost certainly be led by a technocrat.