“Now I am telling Mattarella that we want a date for new elections. It will not be a political election, but a referendum on preserving democracy … Tomorrow we want to know the date of the election,” Salvini said on Sunday during a live stream on his Facebook page.
The Lega leader added that Italy had become a "French or German colony."
Mattarella rejected Conte’s list of potential ministers due to the candidacy of Paolo Savona, who was proposed as a candidate for minister of economy. Mattarella opposes Savona’s views on the EU's monetary policy.
The incumbent president has been supported by head of the center-right Forza Italia party, former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, as well as the Democratic Party.
Italian parliamentary elections were held on March 4. The election resulted in the M5S securing more than 32 percent of the vote. The center-right coalition, consisting of the Lega party, the center-right Forza Italia and the Brothers of Italy movement, received 37 percent of the vote. The Democratic Party won some 20 percent of the vote. None of the parties obtained the majority of votes required to form a government.