Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said he will back Matteo Salvini, leader of Italy's far-right League party, as Italy's prime minister, after anti-immigrant League secured the most number of votes in the conservative bloc during the March 4 elections, Reuters reported, citing Berlusconi's interview with newspaper Corriere della Sera.
This came after Salvini said March 6 that he was the center-right coalition's only possible candidate for the prime minister post.
Salvini's League won about 17% of the vote, more than the 14% secured by Berlusconi's Forza Italia party. Berlusconi is barred from holding public office until 2019 because of a 2013 tax fraud conviction.
The center-right coalition, comprising four parties, took about 37% of votes overall, compared to the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement's 32%. The ruling center-left Democratic Party, or PD, won around 18% of the vote.
No individual party won an absolute majority, resulting in a hung parliament.
Claudio Borghi, the League's economics chief, said that a tie-up between 5-Star and PD is most probable, but hoped that a center-right coalition and 5-Star could govern together instead, Reuters reported.
Formal consultations with Italian President Sergio Mattarella will start after March 23 when parliament gathers to elect the presidents of the two chambers, according to the report.
