“Alas, Mario Draghi has decided to no longer accept blackmail from the parties making up his heterogeneous majority”summarizes the Swiss daily Time. In neighboring Italy, the Prime Minister, leader of a coalition ranging from the center-left to the far-right, presented his resignation to the President of the Republic Sergio Matterella on Thursday. Resignation refused because the Head of State “seeks to buy time and avoid a major political crisis”Explain The countryanother continental newspaper interested in the fate of the European Union’s third-largest economy.
“The crisis of the Draghi government stems from the decision of the 5 Star Movement not to vote confidence in the Senate on a decree approved by the government containing measures of approximately 23 billion euros aimed at families and businesses”precise the Republic. The Prime Minister obtained the necessary votes, even in the absence of the elected representatives of the M5S, but “Such a half-victory was not enough for him”comment the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
As reminded by Corriere della Sera, “The failed vote of confidence in the Senate is just the latest friction in a relationship that has never been peaceful”. The tensions with the populist party had again appeared with the populist party in June on the Ukrainian question.
Or, “the Draghi government, born in February 2021, was thought of as a government of national unity”noted the Republic. This national union has disappeared in the eyes of the former head of the European Central Bank, hence his decision announced in the Council of Ministers: “Since my inauguration speech in Parliament, I have always said that this executive would only go ahead if there was a clear prospect of being able to implement the government program on which the political forces had voted for trust. This compactness was fundamental to face the challenges of these months. Those conditions are no longer there”.
Since the president refused his departure, a vote of confidence will be organized next Wednesday. “A situation which only seems to postpone the irrevocable resignation of the Prime Minister for a few days”valued The sun 24 hours.
The Press Imagine two options. First, Mr. Draghi retains the confidence of Parliament, even without the 5 Star movement. “In this case, the government would continue with a new majority (and a consequent reshuffle)”, predicts the daily. Or, “Draghi decides not to parliamentarize the crisis but resigns irrevocably. In this case, new consultations would begin” with the possibility of early elections in the fall rather than in 2023.
No party in Italy seems to want elections as early as 2022, observes The country. With the exception of the far right, Giorgia Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia training received 25% of the votes in the polls.
And “the effects of President Mattarella’s intervention are not entirely clear”note the BBC, “A period of political uncertainty would jeopardize Italy’s efforts to deal with a looming energy crisis and to pass next year’s budget that is supposed to secure EU subsidies”.
Politico rightly insists on the impact of an Italian political crisis on the whole of the continent. With the resignation of Mr. Draghi, “the European Union would lose one of the last adults in the room”, warns the site, which sees in the Italian Prime Minister one of the strong men of the continent with Emmanuel Macron, who comes out of complicated legislative elections, and Olaf Scholz, in power for only eight months in Germany. This departure would occur at a “Critical moment as EU leaders grapple with how to respond to Russian invasion of Ukraine, rampant inflation and resurgence of Covid”, deplore Politico.