Italy’s PM Mario Draghi offers to quit, but president rejects his resignation
- The coalition that backed his government ‘no longer exists’, the prime minister said, after the Five Star party boycotted a confidence vote
- Italy has been plunged into political uncertainty, even as it seeks to secure billions in EU funds and reduce its reliance on Russian gas.
Italy’s teetering government was thrown a lifeline after the country’s president refused to accept the resignation of Prime Minister Mario Draghi, insisting he address parliament in a bid to avoid snap elections.
Draghi had earlier on Thursday vowed to resign after a party in his coalition government – the Five Star Movement – sat out a confidence vote, sending tremors through the euro zone’s third largest economy.
Draghi said the “pact of trust” on which the government was based had been broken, and the conditions to carry on were “no longer there”.
He said he had made “every effort” to “meet the demands that have been put to me”, but the vote showed “this effort was not enough”.
President Sergio Mattarella, a figurehead who takes on a key role in moments of political crisis, asked Draghi not to throw in the towel but instead “assess” the situation in parliament. He was expected to do address both the lower and upper houses on Wednesday.
“We now have five days to make sure parliament votes its confidence in the Draghi government,” Enrico Letta, head of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), said on Twitter.