Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi tenders his resignation, the president refuses it

The conditions for governing the country “were no longer met”, explained Mario Draghi.

The Prime Minister Italian Mario Draghi, weakened by the decision of the 5 Star Movement (M5S), a member of his coalition, to boycott a vote of confidence in the Senate, announced that he would submit his resignation on Thursday evening.

This evening I will submit my resignation to the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella, declared Mr. Draghi in the Council of Ministers.

The majority of national unity which has supported this government since his creation no longer exists. The pact of trust on which this government's action is based has disappeared, he explained.

Mario Draghi, former head of the European Central Bank, had taken office in early 2021 to build a coalition of national unity broad and strong enough to overcome the pandemic emergency and the ensuing economic crisis. .

Apart from Georgia Meloni's Fratelli d'Italia party (extreme right), the main parties represented in parliament joined the coalition, from the center left (Democratic Party, Italia Viva) to the League (extreme right, anti-immigration), via Silvio Berlusconi's party Forza Italia (center right), and the 5 Star Movement.

But the frictions did not cease with the M5S, whether inside the party or in the government.

And in accordance with the; announcement made Wednesday evening by Giuseppe Conte, predecessor of Mr. Draghi and current boss of the M5S, the senators of his party did not participate in the vote of confidence requested by the executive on a decree-law containing measures around 23 billion euros to help families and businesses deal with inflation.

However, without the support of the M5S, Mr. Dragi considers that his government is becoming political and believes that he has not been mandated to lead a cabinet of this nature, even though he does not need to their votes, neither in the Chamber of Deputies nor in the Senate.

Since my investiture speech in Parliament I have always said that this government would have continued only if it had a clear perspective of carrying out the program of government on which the political forces had voted confidence [.. .] These conditions no longer exist today, he justified on Thursday evening.

Now, the President of Italy, Sergio Mattarella refused the resignation of Prime Minister Draghi.

It is likely that Mattarella […] will ask Draghi to ask for a vote of confidence next week in Parliament, believes Francesco Galietti, an analyst from Policy Sonar interviewed by AFP.

The legislative elections are currently scheduled for 2023 and Mr. Mattarella does not wish to bring them forward to the fall.

The President of the Republic has not accepted the resignation of the President of the Council and invited him to appear in Parliament […] for an assessment of the situation created by the non-participation of a party of his coalition in a vote of confidence in the Senate, she said.

At the origin of the crisis, the decree-law on aid for purchasing power also contains a measure to facilitate the construction of a waste incinerator in Rome, to which the M5S are opposed.

We must respond to the growing social malaise in a clear and decisive way. The irresponsible are not us, they are those who do not give an answer to the country, pleaded Mariolina Castellone, leader of the M5S senators, in the Senate on Thursday.

But the movement also, if not above all, has electoral ulterior motives, according to analysts.

The M5S is collapsing in the polls and needs to recover visibility [ …]. He wants to be the center of attention, Lorenzo Codogno, Italy's former chief treasury economist and visiting professor at the London School of Economics, told AFP.

The M5S, winner of the last legislative elections, in 2018, with 32% of the vote and a relative majority in Parliament, has since continued to plummet in voting intentions, today at 10%-11% , and many of his elected officials have since left him.

A third of his deputies, around 50, split off and followed the former leader of the M5S, current Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, who recently created his own party, Together for the Future (IPF).

Uncertainty reigns on the future of the Draghi government did not fail to cause market turbulence: the Milan Stock Exchange fell more than 3% on Thursday and the cost of Italy's debt rose again on the rise, a sign of the ambient nervousness.

The “spread” index (differential), i.e. the difference between German interest rates and ten-year Italian, reached 218 points, up 6.08%, after ê up to 224 points.

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