Three parties belonging to Mario Draghi’s coalition have announced their non-participation in a confidence motion requested by the prime minister this Wednesday in the Italian Senate, which means the end of his government of national unity.
Mario Draghi is thus deprived of the support of three important members of his coalition: Forza Italia, the right-wing party led by former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, the League, the far-right party of populist tribune Matteo Salvini, and the populist formation Movement 5 Etoiles (M5S).
A probable resignation to come
These mass defections should logically lead to the resignation of Mario Draghi, who has repeatedly stated that he would only remain in his post if he retained broad support, which is no longer the case.
At the end of a debate full of comings and goings in the Upper House, Mario Draghi expressed his frustration with the parties, some of which in turn expressed their discontent at not seeing their points of view taken into account. The coalition that supported Draghi until now, which went from the left to the extreme right, thus vanished.
A European commissioner denounces “irresponsible people”
“With bitterness but with a clear conscience, we will not participate in the vote,” said Anna Maria Bernini, president of the Forza Italia group.
The party had presented its own motion to the Senate, proposing to renew Draghi but without the 5 Stars, but Draghi had only put to the vote another senator’s motion that proposed the outright renewal of the outgoing government.
The League and the M5S followed the same line as Forza Italia. On the center-left, on the other hand, the Democratic Party and Italia Viva have announced that they will vote for confidence, as well as Together for the Future, the neo-party of the head of diplomacy, Luigi Di Maio, who, with around fifty parliamentarians, left the M5S at the end of June.
The European Commissioner for the Economy, Paolo Gentiloni, described on Wednesday as “irresponsible” the parties of the coalition of national unity in Italy that dismissed the head of government Mario Draghi at the risk of “causing a storm”. “We fear difficult months but we are a large country,” he added.
Source: BFM TV
