The resignation of Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi will open a "period of uncertainty" and mark the loss of a "pillar of Europe," France's European affairs minister said on Thursday.
"Italy is going to enter a period that is perhaps less stable that beforehand," Laurence Boone told the France Inter radio station.
"I want to pay tribute to Mario Draghi, an exceptional statesman, a partner for France. We worked well together. He's a pillar of Europe," she added.
"It's a period of uncertainty and periods of uncertainty never put everyone at ease," she added.
Draghi resigned on Thursday morning after efforts to hold together his fractious coalition government failed.
The 74-year-old former governor of the European Central Bank enjoys close ties with French leader Emmanuel Macron, with the two pro-EU statesmen concluding a new Franco-Italian treaty last year.
They also jointly visited Ukraine last month along with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in a demonstration of European solidarity.
In contrast, Paris retains dark memories of the hostile Italian government composed of the far-right League party and the anti-establishment Five Star Movement which ruled for 14 months in 2018-2019.
Five Star Movement blamed for collapse
The latest crisis was sparked when Five Star deputies snubbed a key vote last week, despite warnings from Draghi that it would fatally undermine the coalition.
Three parties -- Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia, Matteo Salvini's anti-immigrant League and the populist Five Star Movement -- opted to sit out Wednesday's vote of confidence in the government coalition, saying it was impossible to recover the trust lost last week.
Salvini, who dined at Berlusconi's Rome villa after the vote, said election campaigning would begin on Thursday.
Salvini said Draghi and Italy were "victims of Five Star madness". Five Star head Giuseppe Conte retorted that his movement had been "the target of a political attack. We were forced to the door".
Enrico Letta, head of the centre-left Democratic Party, which voted in support of the prime minister, said toppling the Draghi government meant "going against Italy and Italians' interests".
Italian President Sergio Mattarella is now expected to dissolve parliament and call elections for September or October, according to political analysts. Draghi may stay on as head of the government until then.
Based on current polls, a rightist alliance led by Giorgia Meloni's post-fascist Brothers of Italy party and including Forza Italia and the League would comfortably win a snap election, provided the three parties can agree among themselves.
