Italy’s 5-Stars would put alliance with Dems to popular vote

ROME – Italy’s populist 5-Star Movement says it’s open to finding agreement with the Democratic Party on forming a government, but that its members would have to vote on any such alliance.

The country’s March 4 parliamentary election produced an inconclusive outcome. A new round of consultations on creating the next Italian government began on Tuesday.

Five-Star leader Luigi Di Maio declared all negotiations with the right-wing League dead. He said the League was “condemned to irrelevance” by refusing to break with former Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia.

The 5-Stars, the election’s single biggest vote-getter, now are looking to the centre-left Democrats, who are badly divided. Some want to be in opposition, while others are open to a 5-Star deal.

Di Maio says Italians should vote again, if no deal is reached.