Italian PM Conte to Resign Aiming to Form New Coalition

The Prime Minister of Italy, Giuseppe Conte, is set to resign from his post on Tuesday, his office announced on Monday.

The Prime Minister is looking forward to being re-appointed by President Sergio Mattarella to form a new coalition government.

The current government lost its majority in the Italian Senate after the centrist party “Italia Viva” decided to withdraw from the coalition, which made Conte lose his majority in the parliament.

Italia Viva, led by former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, decided to quit the coalition in objection to how the government is handling the Coronavirus pandemic and its impact on the Italian economy.

However, the possibility of a snap election being held remains, according to media reports.

Another major part of the coalition is the Democratic Party, which remains in support of a new cabinet being formed by Conte, as expressed by the party’s leader Nicola Zingaretti, who believes that a new government by Conte will be supported by a broad parliamentary base.

The Democratic Party supports Conte as a pro-European candidate, indicating fears that the right-wing populist “Lega Nord” party, led by Matteo Salvini, could achieve gains if early elections were to be held amid the current crisis.

The Five-Star Movement, another populist part that is led by Senator Vito Crimi, could also be in favor of another coalition government being formed by the resigning prime minister. Nonetheless, there has been voices inside the movement that believe the era of Conte has come to an end, including Minister of Industry Stefano Patuanelli, who said that Conte is part of the current problem and therefore cannot be part of the solution.

The Five Star Movement and the Democratic Party are the biggest two component in the current cabinet. But there are differences in the points of view between the two parties concerning how to manage the current crisis and the recession.

Renzi has vowed to return to the coalition if Conte was to make some policy adjustments, but recent media reports suggested that Conte has no plans to reconcile with Italia Viva, which had two ministers in the original coalition.

Conte, an independent law professor with no party affiliations, has been leading the Italian government since June 2018. His first government was mainly formed from the Lega Nord and the Five-Star Movement, alongside some independent technocrats, with the then leaders of the two parties, Salvini and Luigi Di Maio, being appointed as Deputy Prime Ministers.