the constituencies of the country, using a logo without the word "Northern". The League obtained a resounding success, becoming the third largest party in Italy with 17.4% of the vote. The ticket won most of its votes in the North (including 32.2% in Veneto, 28.0% in Lombardy, 26.7% in Trentino, 25.8% in Friuli-Venezia Giulia and 22.6% in Piedmont), but also made inroads in the rest of the country, especially in Central Italy (notably 20.2% in Umbria), the upper part of the South (13.8% in Abruzzo) and Sardinia (10.8%). The League became the party with the most votes in the centre-right coalition and thus Salvini was de facto chosen as coalition's leader; the centre-right won a plurality of seats in the Chamber of Deputies and in the Senate; however, no political group or party won an outright majority, resulting in a hung parliament. After the election's results were known, both Salvini and the head of the Five Star Movement, Luigi Di Maio, stated that they deserved to receive from President Sergio Mattarella the mandate to form a new cabinet, because they led, respectively, the largest party and the largest coalition. On 6 March, Salvini repeated his campaign message that his party would refuse any coalition with the Five Star Movement. On 24 March, the centre-right coalition and the Five Star Movement agreed on the election of presidents of the Houses of Parliament, Roberto Fico of M5S for the Chamber and Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati of Forza Italia for the Senate. On 7 May, President Mattarella held a third round of government formation talks, after which he formally confirmed the lack of any possible majority. The Five Star Movement was rejecting an alliance with the entire centre-right coalition, the Democratic Party was rejecting an alliance with both the Five Star Movement and the centre-right coalition, and the League refusing to enter a government with the Five Star Movement without Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party (yet whose presence in the government was explicitly vetoed by Luigi Di Maio). Consequently, Mattarella announced his intention to soon appoint a "neutral government" (irrespective of M5S and League's refusal to support such an option). This would take over from the Gentiloni Cabinet, which was considered unable to lead Italy into a second consecutive election as it was representing a majority from a past legislature, and offering an early election in July (on what would be the first