Italy’s prime minister, Mario Draghi, has said his government’s survival hinges on “rebuilding the pact of trust” as he weighed a groundswell of support for him to remain in the post before a vote of confidence scheduled for Wednesday evening.
The former European Central Bank president offered his resignation last week after the Five Star Movement (M5S), a key component of his broad coalition, snubbed a vote on a €26bn cost of living package.
His resignation was rejected by the president, Sergio Mattarella, who instead asked him to address parliament in an attempt to avert what would be Italy’s third government collapse in three years.
During a speech in the senate on Wednesday, Draghi said the M5S’s boycott was “a clear political gesture that is not possible to ignore because that would mean ignoring parliament”. He added: “It is not possible to contain, because that would mean anyone could repeat it. And it is not possible to play it down.”
Draghi’s resignation prompted a huge campaign calling for him to stay, including declarations from more than 1,500 mayors from across the political spectrum and various labour unions, a signal of public support that he said was “unprecedented and impossible to ignore”.
“This demand for stability requires all of us to decide if it’s possible to recreate the conditions in which the government can truly govern,” Draghi said.
Parliamentarians are now giving their responses to the speech. As Draghi asked his regularly squabbling coalition parties if they were ready to rebuild the trust of pact and unity of the early months of his administration, he said: “You don’t have to give the response to me. You have to give it to all Italians.”
It is unclear how the situation will play out. Giuseppe Conte, the former prime minister and M5S leader, said on Tuesday that Draghi must welcome M5S’s key policy priorities, including a basic income, in order to ensure his party’s support.
M5S, which emerged as the biggest party in the 2018 general election, has been considerably weakened by an exodus of MPs, and more are expected to go. Luigi Di Maio, the foreign minister and once M5S’s shining star, split from the group in June, taking dozens of parliamentarians with him. Di Maio reportedly splintered off because Conte allegedly wanted to take his ministerial post.
Domenico De Masi, a sociologist and hardline M5S supporter, said the party had no alternative but to pull out of the ruling coalition.
Even though Draghi previously said he would not govern without M5S, he could carve out a majority in its absence. The centre-left Democratic party has guaranteed its support either way, but Matteo Salvini’s far-right League and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia have excluded the possibility of continuing in a Draghi government that included M5S.
