ROME – Italian Premier Mario Draghi offered to step down after a populist coalition partner refused to vote for a key bill in Parliament, but the nation’s president quickly rebuffed him, leaving one of Western Europe’s main leaders at the helm for now.
The rejection of the tendered resignation left in limbo the future of Draghi’s 17-month-old government, officially known as a national unity coalition, but with its survival sorely tested by increasingly sharp divergences within the coalition.
Draghi´s broad coalition government – which includes parties from the right, the left, the center and the populist 5-Star Movement – was designed to help Italy recover from the coronavirus pandemic.
Hours earlier, Draghi and his government won a confidence vote, 172-39, in the Senate despite the refusal by the 5-Star Movement to back the bill, which earmarked 26 billion euros (dollars) to help consumers and industries struggling with soaring energy prices.
But the dramatic snub, orchestrated by 5-Star leader Giuseppe Conte, Draghi´s predecessor, did its damage.
Shortly before heading to the Quirinal presidential palace to tender his resignation, Draghi declared according to AP: “The majority of national unity that has sustained this government from its creation doesn´t exist any more.”
But President Sergio Mattarella told Draghi to instead go back to Parliament and see if he can still garner solid support, a palace statement said.
The next showdown in Parliament is set for July 20, when Draghi will formally pitch for support ahead of a confidence vote – this time not on a specific bill but on his government’s very viability.
“Now there are five days to work so that Parliament confirms its confidence in the Draghi government and Italy emerges as rapidly as possible from the dramatic unraveling” of the last hours, tweeted Enrico Letta, the head of the Democratic Party, a Draghi ally and a former premier.
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