ROME, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- Italian President Sergio Mattarella said Saturday he would make a decision "in the coming hours" to solve ongoing government crisis, and give the country a new full-functioning cabinet.
Mattarella released a short statement at the end of the third day of talks with political party leaders. Italy needs a new prime minister to form a transition government, after outgoing Prime Minister Matteo Renzi resigned.
Renzi's resignation was linked to the sounding defeat of a cabinet-backed constitutional reform in a referendum held on Dec. 4.
"The country needs a full-functioning government in a short space of time: there are deadlines and commitments at domestic, European, and international level ahead of us, which have to be dealt with and respected," Mattarella said.
Mattarella stressed that a change in the current electoral system was a necessary precondition to early elections.
"From these meetings has emerged, as a priority, a general need to harmonize the two laws ruling over the election of the lower house and of the senate, an indispensable condition to proceed with elections," he said.
