Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi resigned late Thursday night as Italy’s prime minister, the day before, Draghi won a confidence vote in the Senate.
It must be noted that Draghi was appointed Prime Minister by President Sergio Mattarella in February 2021.
Mario Draghi announced that he would resign as Italy’s prime minister on Thursday, after one party in the ruling coalition failed to take part in a confidence vote.
“I will submit my resignation to the President of the Republic this evening,” Draghi told the cabinet, according to a statement released by his office.
There is no more national unity supporting this government,” he said
His government fell on Thursday after the 5-Star Movement, one of its members, failed to support a parliamentary confidence vote with an offset to the lifestyle crisis.
Immediately after the vote, Draghi went to Rome’s Quirinal Palace to meet with President Sergio Mattarella, the top arbiter in Italian politics, and the two men held talks for about an hour.
Draghi, 74, left his office without commenting on their discussion.
The confidence vote has become a focus of tension within Draghi’s broad coalition as its parties prepare to face off against opponents in a national election as early as 2023.
Draghi has claimed he does not want to lead a government without the 5-Stars, who emerged as the largest party in previous elections in 2018 but have since suffered defections and lost public support.
The 5-star decision to boycott the vote plunged Italy into political uncertainty and undermined its efforts to secure billions of euros in EU funding, combat a damaging drought and reduce dependence on Russian gas.
It could lead to national elections in September or early October when other coalition parties say they should vote if 5-Star no longer supports the government.
Cost of living
The confidence vote was later passed by 172 votes to 39 as the 5-star legislators did not participate in the vote. It was used by expediting parliamentary approval of a multi-billion euro aid package that included provisions to allow the city of Rome to build a giant trash incinerator.
The 5-star former head of the European Central Bank continued to press Draghi to do more to help the rising cost of living by increasing government borrowing and has long opposed the incinerator project.
Conte, who was Draghi’s predecessor as prime minister, said the party would always support a program based on environmental change and social equality.
“Either we get a true, structured and important response, or nobody can vote for us,” Conte told reporters on Thursday afternoon.
Italy is due to hold its next national election in the first half of next year and as early as 2021, fueling tensions between members of a coalition and fueling both sides of the political divide.
Risks of the fall of the Draghi government will affect financial markets Italian bond yields fell sharply, prompting investors to demand higher premiums to hold the debt, and shares fell to their lowest levels since late 2020.
The turmoil comes at a challenging time for Italy, the euro zone’s third-largest economy, as the ECB begins to tighten its monetary policy, raising borrowing costs sharply.
The ECB is working on a new tool to measure the difference between German debt costs and those of highly indebted member states like Italy.
Italy’s sixth prime minister in a decade assured Draghi that Italy would respect any conditions attached to the new system, now that his departure will create new uncertainty.