Italian center-right, populists join forces to elect parliament speakers

ROME, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Italy's center-right bloc and the anti-establishment Five Star Movement joined forces Saturday to elect a speaker for each chamber of parliament, in what could be a test run for a possible government alliance in the wake of an inconclusive March 4 general election.

The new Senate speaker is veteran politician Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati from media mogul Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party. The 71-year-old lawyer from the northwestern Veneto region was re-elected to a sixth term in the March 4 election. She is a member of the Superior Council of Magistrates, which is the self-governing body of the Italian judiciary, and is considered to be a Berlusconi loyalist.

The new speaker of the Lower House is Roberto Fico, a prominent member of the Five Star Movement since its inception in 2009. Born in Naples in 1974, he has a degree in communications and was elected to a second term in the Lower House earlier this month.

Italy's newly elected parliament, which convened for the first time on Friday, was at an impasse after talks broke down between the two relative winners of the national vote -- the center-right bloc led by the rightwing, anti-immigrant League, which also includes Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, and the populist Five Star Movement.

The 315-member Senate and the 630-seat Lower House must each elect a speaker -- powerful positions, which act as referees during parliamentary debate -- before President Sergio Mattarella can initiate formal government talks between the various parties.

The two houses of parliament have equal powers and both must vote their confidence in any new government, so Mattarella must weigh the abilities of each political force to form a lasting majority before giving any one of them a mandate.

The two relative winners of the general election have pledged to crack down on immigration, roll back unpopular pension reforms, introduce drastic tax cuts and generous welfare measures, cut government waste, and break European Union rules on public spending if necessary.

League leader Matteo Salvini, whose party made huge gains in the wealthier north, and Five Star chief Luigi Di Maio, whose Movement made inroads in the impoverished south, both claim the right to be the next prime minister of Italy. Enditem