Not everyone is satisfied with today's news that Italy's early elections will likely be pushed back. Italy's anti-establishment 5-Star Movement called on Thursday for immediate national elections after the previously reported deal on electoral reform - which would have resulted in the next Italian elections taking place in September, at the same time as Germany's - among the major parties unraveled.
"There is no chance of starting all over again. The legislature should end here and we should hold immediate elections," said Luigi Di Maio, who is widely expected to be the 5-Star's candidate for prime minister. He spoke shortly after the lower house voted to send the electoral reform bill back to a cross-party commission for further discussion.
Today's events have reintroduced confusion about the Italian political timeline: as Reuters adds, upping the pressure for an early election, the parliamentary party leader of the ruling Democratic Party, Ettore Rosato, told reporters he did not know how the coalition government could hold together following the rupture over the voting law.
Also moments ago founder of the Five Star Movement, Beppe Grillo, said in a post on his blog that the Democratic Party now wants to avoid early elections, and regrets that no agreement found on electoral law.
As a reminder, the Five Star (M5S) party has erased the PD's lead over the past two years, and according to recent polls was neck and neck, if not leading in the polls.
The Ruling Democratic Party and the Anti-Establishment 5 Star Movement Are Polling Neck-and-NeckOpinion polls on voting intentions at Italy's general elections
Looking at Italian bonds, there has been a modest reaction to the latest news, although much of that may be a function of the ECB's "dovish relent" earlier in the day, which has pushed European yields broadly lower.