Italy's Salvini warns against 5-Star/PD government

Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, leader of the far-right League party, said on Friday that any attempt to install a new ruling coalition would be unacceptable and reiterated his calls for rapid new elections. Speaking to reporters the day after announcing that the League's coalition with the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement had collapsed, Salvini warned against any maneuvers to block a return to the polls.

"I hope nobody is thinking of taking Italians for a ride, of playing for time and inventing a government that would be democratically unacceptable," he said in Termoli on the Adriatic coast. He added that he was alarmed to hear "similar tones" on the issue from 5-Star and the opposition Democratic Party.