Centre-left Democratic Party (PD) caretaker leader Maurizio Martina said Monday it was “impossible to lead the party” after former leader Matteo Renzi on Sunday scotched the idea of a government with the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S). Martina said Renzi’s intervention ahead of a PD executive to decide on talks with the M5S Thursday was “serious”. He said “a frank and unequivocal discussion will be needed because it is impossible to lead a party in these conditions,” he said, while stressing that “collegiality is always a value”. According to Martina, the PD is now facing “extinction”.
Former PD leader Renzi on Sunday scotched a government alliance between the PD and the M5S.
In the meantime, after the comments by Renzi and in view of the current state of affairs in the Italian peninsula, the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) leader Luigi Di Maio on Monday urged Matteo Salvini to join with him in asking President Sergio Mattarella to call fresh elections in June. “At this point there is no other solution, we have to get back to the polls as soon as possible,” Di Maio said, describing a second vote after the inconclusive March 4 general election as a “run-off”. “I say to Salvini, let’s go together and ask to go to vote and let’s have this second round in June, let’s let the citizens choose between revolution and restoration”. Salvini has on several occasions said he would like a new election in June.  
