Italy’s feuding right-wing leaders aim somehow to govern

By FRANCES D’EMILIO
Associated Press

ROME (AP) — Italy’s president has begun formal consultations with the aim of quickly giving the country a new government. The uphill task of trying to form a governing coalition is expected to go to far-right leader Giorgia Meloni. Her Brothers of Italy party triumphed in the country’s general election last month. But relations with a key coalition partner recently soured over former Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s sympathies with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Berlusconi’s lawmakers on Thursday insisted he’ll be a pro-Europe, pro-Ukraine ally in the new government. If Meloni succeeds in creating a viable coalition, Italy would have its first government led by the far right since the end of World War II.