“I will tender my resignation to the President this evening. The conditions are no longer in place for me to carry on,” Draghi was quoted as saying by a section of media.
Rome: Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said he will offer his resignation after a split in the coalition, said a statement from his office. “I will tender my resignation to the President this evening. The conditions are no longer in place for me to carry on,” Draghi was quoted as saying by a section of media.
Draghi told his cabinet that he will offer to step down after a meeting with President Sergio Mattarella. Draghi is in power since early 2021 and had been expected to seek to resign after a key member of his coalition boycotted a confidence vote on the government.
Draghi’s move came after the Five Star Movement refused to take part in a confidence vote, raising the spectre of a snap general election. Five Star is headed by former Prime Minister of Italy Giuseppe Conte and was formerly an anti-establishment party that plummeted in the polls and lost parliamentarians since joining the government, hurt by policy U-turns and internal divisions.
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Earlier, Mariolina Castellone, a leader of the Five Star had said, “We are not taking part in the vote on this measure today…but this position of ours is not about confidence in the government.” Although the Italian government survived the confidence vote, Draghi had earlier on multiple occasions said he would not carry without Five Star’s support.
Although it is still unclear what the next step will be, Mattarella could ask the former head of the European Central Bank to seek support from all allies in a new vote. A collapse of the coalition government could prompt an early polls but most parties would seek to avoid this, said sources.
