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Italy's former prime minister says his party will shun coalition talks

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Italy's former prime minister says his party will shun coalition talks

Former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said his center-left Democratic Party will not engage in talks with anti-establishment parties to form a coalition government, Reuters reported, raising the specter of a prolonged political gridlock after the March 4 elections resulted in a hung parliament.

No individual party won an absolute majority in the Italian elections, with the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement garnering about 32% of the vote for the lower house of parliament and the Democratic Party getting more than 18%. A coalition of rightist parties that includes Forza Italia collectively received about 37% of the vote.

Renzi, who resigned from his leadership post, said his party will be in the opposition and would not be involved in the next administration.

"We will never form a government with anti-system forces," Renzi was quoted as saying by Reuters.

Luigi Di Maio, head of the 5-Star Movement, said his party should take the helm of the next government, and is open to negotiations with all political forces.

Italian President Sergio Mattarella is set to open formal coalition talks in April, according to Reuters. Failure to reach an agreement could lead to early elections.

Meanwhile, S&P Global Ratings said the outcome of the recent elections will have no immediate impact on Italy's sovereign credit ratings. However, the rating agency warned that the process to form a coalition government could be complicated and lengthy.

"In our view, there is currently a lack of visibility on the composition of the new government and, as a result, on its policy direction, which will continue to be a key driver of Italy's creditworthiness," S&P said.

S&P upgraded Italy's long-term sovereign credit rating to BBB from BBB- and the short-term rating to A-2 from A-3 in October 2017.

S&P Global Ratings and S&P Global Market Intelligence are owned by S&P Global Inc.