Berlusconi Open to Center-Right Pact With Five Star
- Ex-premier wants Di Maio to stop insisting on premiership
- Five Star must focus on possible program, senior lawmaker says
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Silvio Berlusconi is open to his party joining a possible coalition government formed by Italy’s center-right alliance and the anti-establishment Five Star Movement -- but he wants its leader Luigi Di Maio to stop demanding the premiership.
Berlusconi believes Di Maio should drop his claim on the prime minister’s job, and focus on drawing up a common program, according to a senior lawmaker from the ex-premier’s Forza Italia party who asked not to be named discussing strategy. Berlusconi would consider ministers from Forza Italia participating in a government of the center-right and Five Star, the lawmaker added.