Salvini, Di Maio to meet in last-ditch bid to avert Italian election
By Philip Pullella and Giuseppe Fonte
ROME (Reuters) - Italy's anti-establishment political leaders Matteo Salvini and Luigi Di Maio were due to meet on Thursday for last-ditch talks to resurrect a coalition government and avert a new snap election, the prospect of which has rattled global markets.
Salvini, who flew to Rome for political talks, told Italians to be patient while he considers proposals to exit the political crisis, which erupted this week when President Sergio Mattarella rejected a proposed coalition that included a sceptic of the euro as economy minister.
A source in the anti-eastablishment 5-Star party said its leader Di Maio would meet Salvini, head of the far-right League, early on Thursday afternoon.
Global financial markets have been recovering over the past two days after tumbling earlier this week over the prospect of a new Italian election dominated by debate over Italy's future in the euro zone.
Mattarella torpedoed an initial attempt by the League and 5-Star to form a coalition, rejecting their candidate for economy minister, 81-year-old economist Paolo Savona, who has spoken out against the single currency.
On Wednesday Di Maio made a last-ditch offer to resurrect the coalition bid, and Salvini said he would "seriously consider" it.
"You will have to be patient," Salvini told reporters at Rome airport when asked about a possible solution to the crisis. He was whisked straight to parliament for political talks.
After rejecting Savona, Mattarella named former International Monetary Fund official Carlo Cottarelli to form a stop-gap government of experts to lead the country to elections. But Cottarelli has so far failed to form a viable cabinet.
Di Maio, whose 5-Star emerged from the inconclusive March 4 elections as the largest single party, urged Salvini to drop his insistence on Savona for the economy portfolio and agree to give him another post.
"Di Maio - Salvini: the Final Deal," was the headline in Corriere della Sera newspaper, echoing the national feeling of crisis put into a holding pattern.
Salvini and Di Maio had agreed when they first tried to form a government that Giuseppe Conte, a little-known law professor, would be prime minister. That is not expected to change if the two sides reach another agreement.
Opinion polls show Salvini's League would see huge gains in any early elections while the 5-Star would remain steady.
Italian stocks were trading higher and its borrowing costs edged lower as signs emerged of a compromise to avoid the snap election. Italy's 2-year government bond yield, which has been the focus of a recent selloff, was down as much as 95 basis points at 1.40 percent.
The latest development came amid a general calming of financial markets after Tuesday's rout, when investor concerns prompted the biggest one-day rise since 1992 in Italian two-year bond yields and dented the euro's exchange rate.
"I have lost my patience. I have had enough, that is the truth," said exasperated Rome resident Teresa Gallo as she was walking to a market for her regular morning shopping.
Two polls released on Wednesday night showed that around two thirds of Italians want the country to remain part of the euro while around a quarter would choose to drop the common currency. [L5N1T214H]
Lupo Rattazzi, a prominent Italian businessman, ran a full-page advertisement in several national newspapers addressed to Salvini and Di Maio, warning the electorate of the dire consequences of leaving the euro.
(Additional reporting by Eleanor Biles, Giselda Vagnoni, Giuseppe Fonte and Stefano Bernabei in Rome and Steven Jukes and Francesca Landini in Milan, Writing by Philip Pullella; Editing by Richard Balmforth and Peter Graff)
