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Italy PM meets president ahead of dissolution of parliament
Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni was meeting with President Sergio Mattarella on Thursday in the first formal step ahead of the dissolution of parliament which is necessary before an election can be called, a government source told Reuters.
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Gentiloni went to the president's palace at 3 p.m. (1400 GMT), said the source, who asked not to be named.
After the meeting with Gentiloni, Mattarella is expected to summon the speakers of the two houses and then dissolve parliament. Gentiloni's cabinet will then set the date of the election, which is widely expected to be March 4.
Earlier on Thursday Gentiloni defended the record of his year-old government and said he would remain in office and ensure continuity "until a new government is in place".
Speaking at the prime minister's traditional end of year news conference, he appealed to political parties not to spread fear and make unrealistic promises in the "imminent" election campaign.
"I think it is in the interests of the country to have an election campaign that limits as much as possible the spreading of fears and illusions, these are the risks we have before us," he said.
All Italy's main parties are promising to raise the budget deficit and slash taxes despite record high public debt, and immigration is set to be a central theme of the election, with right-wing parties frequently warning of a migrant "invasion".
With opinion polls pointing to a hung parliament, Gentiloni said Italy should be prepared to deal with instability but should not fear it, noting that it was now common to many European countries.
"We mustn't dramatise the risk of instability, we are quite inoculated against it," he said, in reference to Italy's frequent changes of government, adding that elsewhere in Europe there has been "an Italianisation of political systems".Â
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