The Italian Prime Minister, Mario Draghi, lost parliamentary support to govern on Wednesday, after the abandonment in the Senate of his former coalition partners, the 5 Star Movement and the right of Silvio Berlusconi and Matteo Salvini.
(Also read: Italy: what can happen if Prime Minister Mario Draghi leaves office)
Draghi won the confidence vote voted today in the Upper House, but with the absence of the M5S, Berlusconi’s Forza Italia (FI) and Salvini’s League, Draghi loses his parliamentary majority.
Of the 320 seats in the Senate, it received 95 votes in favor -and 38 against-, although the vast majority decided not to vote..
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The prime minister left the Senate after knowing the intentions of his partners and it is expected that he will now go before the head of state, Sergio Mattarella, before whom he resigned last week, but who froze his resignation until it is debated today in Parliament.
Parliament turned ‘against Italy’
The general secretary of the Democratic Party, Enrico Letta, who supported Draghi, lamented “this day of madness in which Parliament decided to turn against Italy” and foresaw an early election. “We have done everything possible to avoid it and support the Draghi government. Italians will show at the polls that they are wiser than their representatives,” he wrote on Twitter.
The economist has led a coalition of national unity since February 2021 in which almost all the parties in the hemicycle were, except Giorgia Meloni’s ultra Brothers of Italy.
Last week the crisis broke out in his coalition after the M5S did not vote on a confidence motion, distancing himself from the rest of his partners, which pushed Draghi to resign.
However, President Mattarella rejected his resignation and summoned him to seek a solution in Parliament, which began today, but this mission was impossible due to the confrontation between the right and the M5S.
Well, although Berlusconi and Salvini reached out to the prime minister to continue in the coalition, they did so on the condition that the M5S be excluded, something that Draghi was not willing to do, since he aspired to retain the same majority to exhaust the legislature, in March 2023.
possible scenarios
If Draghi finally formalizes his resignation, the head of state could commission him to seek another parliamentary majority to exhaust the legislature, grant that mission to another technical or political figure, or call early elections.
An option, the latter, especially demanded by the ultra Meloni, alone in the opposition and the country’s leading force according to most polls and that Berlusconi and Salvini, his partners in the last elections, see with good eyes.
In recent days, unions, employers, numerous associations of all kinds and even the Catholic Church had encouraged Draghi’s continuation due to the ongoing economic, energy and social crisis.
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
*With information from Efe
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