ROME (AP) — Italy is rapidly edging closer to unscheduled elections that could move the country farther to the right.

Milan's stock market plunged by 2.3 percent Friday morning, hours after Matteo Salvini, whose hard-line League party is the junior coalition member, announced he would no longer support Premier Giuseppe Conte's 14-month-old populist government.

Pushing his anti-migrant agenda, Salvini is already unofficially campaigning to be the next premier, even though no new election date has been set.

Far-right leader Giorgia Meloni, a potential ally in any League-led government, says that elections could yield a government determined to make the "politically incorrect reforms that Italy needs."

Salvini wants to capitalize on soaring popularity in opinion polls and local elections. The 5-Star Movement, the other government party, has seen its voter support erode.