“The Council of Ministers is convened for tomorrow morning at 9 am, during which the Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, will communicate to the ministers his will to go to the (Presidential Palace) and hand in his resignation,” the statement read. He will then see the President Sergio Mattarella, it added.
The resignation is a calculated move that could ultimately afford him another chance at forming a government.
Conte survived two confidence votes in Parliament last week. But he lost his governing majority in the Senate after his predecessor, Matteo Renzi, decided to withdraw the small Italia Viva party from Conte’s ruling coalition over frustrations with the government’s management of the Covid-19 pandemic and attendant economic recession.
President Mattarella can choose whether to accept Conte’s resignation, and is likely to invite him to try to build a new governing majority. If Conte receives the mandate to form a new majority, he would need to add five more senators to his existing coalition.
Conte’s coalition, which was formed in 2019, is led by the center-left Democratic Party (PD) and the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S). Despite vast political differences, the unusual alliance prevented snap elections which could have favored the far-right League Party.
You may also like
-
UK coronavirus variant has been reported in 86 countries, WHO says
-
NASA technology can help save whale sharks says Australian marine biologist and ECOCEAN founder, Brad Norman
-
California Twentynine Palms: Explosives are missing from the nation’s largest Marine Corps base and an investigation is underway
-
Trump unhappy with his impeachment attorney’s performance, sources say
-
Lunar New Year 2021: Ushering in the Year of the Ox