Agencies-Gaza post
What is fate of Italian PM Mario Draghi’s government??
The Italian government could fall on Wednesday, on another dramatic day for Prime Minister Mario Draghi, whose resignation was rejected by the president last week.
Draghi, who led a 17-month unity government, will tell the Senate in the morning whether or not he is ready to remain in office.
In hours there will be a vote of confidence in the government.
Elections were already scheduled for early next year.
The former unelected President of the European Central Bank was scheduled to step down at that point anyway. But the main member of his broad coalition of unity, the populist Five Star Movement, pushed his decision to withdraw from a confidence vote last Thursday over political differences.
Amid the war in Ukraine, the recovery from the COVID pandemic, and concerns about global energy prices, it is not the most favourable moment for a political crisis.
But Draghi, 74, has indicated that he would not rule without Five Star, and now the country with nearly 70 governments since World War II will find out whether its last administration will fall too.
If he resigns, the EU’s third-largest economy could be plunged into early elections, delaying much-needed reforms as well as Italy’s 2023 budget. Italy is the largest recipient of grants and loans from the EU’s massive Covid recovery fund, but the next payment depends on the list of changes.
Draghi has not commented since President Sergio Mattarella refused to resign and saw him again on Tuesday for a scheduled meeting.
However, 1,600 mayors as well as 250 business leaders and unions called on him to stay, and ratings agency Fitch warned that reforms were likely to become more difficult without him.
Dario Nardella, mayor of Florence’s center-left, said the large number of signatures by city leaders was unprecedented and pointed to a “very strong feeling” across the political spectrum of Draghi’s non-resignation.
