Italy PM Draghi announces resignation as coalition collapses

Italian Premier Mario Draghi has told his Cabinet he will offer his resignation on Thursday evening to the president, following the refusal of a coalition ally to support a government bill.

“The majority of national unity that has sustained this government from its creation doesn’t exist any more,” Draghi said in a statement released by his office.

It will be up to President Sergio Mattarella to accept or reject the resignation. But if the government crisis can’t be resolved quickly, Mattarella could pull the plug on Parliament, setting the stage for an election as early as September.

Draghi won a confidence vote Thursday in the Senate but the future of his pandemic unity government was in doubt after the populist 5-Star Movement boycotted the vote, throwing his coalition into crisis.

The vote was 172-39 on a relief bill to help Italians facing soaring energy costs, but 5-Stars senators were absent after confirming they wouldn’t participate.

Draghi met later Thursday with President Sergio Mattarella to decide on the next steps, including a possible offer to resign.

He has repeatedly made it clear that the populists were among the coalition partners that signed up to be part of his government last year and that he wouldn’t continue without them.

Mattarella could accept or reject any resignation by Draghi. The president could also ask Draghi to go before Parliament in the coming days to seek a formal vote on the government itself, to see if the ranks of squabbling allies would rally around him.

Parliament’s term expires in spring 2023. If Mattarella can’t come up with a solution so Draghi’s government can continue, he is expected to dissolve the legislature and call an early election, which could come as early as late September.

Mattarella had tapped the former European Central Bank chief — who was known as “Super Mario” for his “whatever it takes” rescue of the euro — to pull Italy out of the coronavirus pandemic and lay the groundwork to make use of billions in European Union pandemic recovery funds.

The 5-Stars had joined Draghi’s broad coalition of national unity, which included parties both on the right and the left.

But the 5-Stars, which have lost significant support in recent years, have been complaining that their interests have been ignored. In the measure voted on Thursday, the 5-Stars opposed a provision to allow Rome to operate a garbage incinerator on the outskirts of the chronically trash-choked Italian capital.

That item was just part of a bill that reduces taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel, as well as extends utility bill relief to hard-pressed Italians, but 5-Star leader Giuseppe Conte cited the provision in announcing late Wednesday that his lawmakers would boycott the vote.

In the debate Thursday, several senators blasted Conte’s decision.