MNI BRIEF: Italy Heads For Technocrat Govt As Conte Talks Fail

Italy seemed to be heading for a government headed by a technocratic prime ministerafter negotiations to return Giuseppe Conte to the prime minister's office failed on Tuesday, a source present in meetings to resolve the political crisis told MNI.

President Sergio Matarella is now most likely to appoint a technocrat with wide parliamentary support to lead a government that concentrates on designing and administering a recovery plan channeling European Union emergency Covid funds, the source said.

Talks to return Conte to the national leadership failed despite progress to resolve disagreements between the populist Five Stars and centre-left Democratic Party on one side and former prime minister Matteo Renzi's Italia Viva, several sources said. The two sides could not agree over who would lead ministries in a future government with a diminished role for Conte.