“For me this government is over. The conditions are not there to continue”, and again: “I would no longer have the political viability to continue”. In the two talks at the Quirinale, Mario Draghi was very clear with Sergio Mattarella about his government’s crisis.
So clear even if the Prime Minister’s resignation were rejected by President Sergio Mattarella, little or nothing will change: The PM’s advisors are already writing his speech for today, when he will face Parliament for a vote of confidence. Draghi is set to confirm his unwillingness to continue as head of government in any case. From the Quirinale, the mood seems to be that of “total convergence” between the two and of no conflict between Draghi and the President.
The backstories speak however of Draghi’s final countdown today and new general elections possibly on 10 October of this year. Mattarella received the Prime Minister at the Quirinale Palace while a crucial vote in the Senate was still in progress.
ANSA, Italy’s principal news agency, reported a “tense, sometimes even rough” interview.
The premier seems to have already discerned his resignation, continued on the last page arguing that blackmailing and factionalisms cannot work in a government of national unity. Draghi took the floor only to read a brief statement which was immediately released to the press. “Trust has failed,” he tells the ministers, “we can no longer continue this way.” Meanwhile, a quarrel started between ministers Andrea Orlando and Roberto Cingolani.
For Cingolani, Orlando was too soft with former Prime Minister Conte and the Five Star Movement. After this, PM Draghi went back to Mattarella and this time gave his resignation. The President rejected them, in the continued from the first page hope that a few days of further reflection, also by the parties, could lead to a different outcome that avoids the end of the legislature.
A clear “caesura”, and then a second Draghi Ministry, however, was one of the suggestions put forward by former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who asked the parties and the premier to act responsibly during the debate in the Chamber.
The background, on the other hand, also suggests that the relationship between Draghi and Mattarella is “tense and now worn out,” according to the Italian newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano.
According to government sources, Draghi would have proposed Daniele Franco as his successor to Mattarella, just as the newspapers were reporting on the possibility of a new government led by the President of the Constitutional Court Giuliano Amato.
Draghi’s reporting to the Chambers is an institutional courtesy which, however, could be fruitless. The PM is likely to confirm his resignation as “irrevocable” in his speech to be delivered just before a parliamentary vote of confidence. It will be up to Mattarella to decide what to do next, but the ballot boxes are clearly in the background.
Be the first to comment