ROME – Italy’s history of political instability reemerged at particularly unstable times on Wednesday, when a government crisis began amid a pandemic that devastated the country, raised doubts about the competence of its leadership and intensified political battles.
The government, an unstable coalition of convenience between increasingly unpopular populists and the center-left establishment, seemed on the verge of implosion amid long-standing power struggles, revenge plans and ideological disputes over EU bailout funds.
Italy is now in a family period of political uncertainty, but much more dangerous due to the pandemic.
The crisis was triggered by the withdrawal of government ministers from a former prime minister, Matteo Renzi, who controls small but critical support from the governing majority. His move, which nervous political leaders spent the week trying to avoid, puts his rival, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, in a difficult position.
The beginning of a government crisis comes at a time when Italy, the first European country to be hit hard by the virus and one of the most devastated by it, starts a vaccination program in which the country’s hopes rest.
Italian voters, who largely do not understand or care about the machinations and battles between political leaders, fear that the collapse could harm the response of Italy’s virus and delay the return to an appearance of normalcy.
At a news conference on Wednesday night, Renzi, a center-left politician, officially announced the resignation of two of his ministers. He did not rule out the possibility of joining another government led by Conte, but said the prime minister forced his hand in using the pandemic as a pretext to bypass democratic institutions.
“Exactly because there is a pandemic, there is a need to respect the rules of democracy,” he said.
Expressing an unspoken complaint among many in the Democratic Party, which he has already led, Renzi said that the most populist members of the government are more focused on getting likes on social media than on governing seriously. He said the Conte government has failed to move forward on infrastructure projects, investing in jobs for Italian youth and sufficiently condemning President Trump’s supporters who broke into the U.S. Capitol building a week ago.
More importantly, he said, ideological populists under the Conte government refused to accept billions of euros in money from the European Union bailout for Italy’s healthcare system.
The reaction to Renzi’s breakdown was swift and negative across the Italian political scene, with leaders lamenting that Renzi’s action was unreasonable, politically motivated and threw the country into the abyss.
“A serious mistake made by some that we will all pay for,” wrote Andrea Orlando, Renzi’s former ally in the Democratic Party in Twitter.
Mr. Conte’s administration managed to maintain a parliamentary majority, potentially through a remodeling of the current cabinet. But it gets more difficult without Renzi’s approval.
Conte can also simply resign, leading to the collapse of the government amid the worst national crisis Italy has faced since World War II. The President of Italy could then ask someone with sufficient support, perhaps even Mr. Conte again, to build another government that would receive parliamentary approval.
But if a new durable coalition cannot be found, the political crisis could eventually lead to new elections in potentially dangerous conditions and open the door for the return of nationalist forces.
Renzi’s critics, who abound, see a vengeful and ambitious politician who now only had the power to destroy, but could not resist using it.
Renzi, a skilled political operator of the center-left establishment, effectively alienated nationalist leader Matteo Salvini in 2019. After Salvini overcame a government coalition in a takeover, Renzi seized the moment, swallowing his considerable pride in creating a unlikely alliance between the Democratic Party he led and the populist Five Star Movement that has spent years spreading insults and misinformation about him and has taken him out of power. That deal prevented new elections that Salvini had planned to win and kept him out.
Renzi then promptly left the Democratic Party and formed a small party, Italia Viva, which failed to gain any real strength. But it has enough members in Parliament to be decisive for the survival of the government formed by the Five Star and the Democratic Party.
Tensions between Mr. Conte and Mr. Renzi exploded in December, when Mr. Conte announced the formation of yet another task force to decide how to spend the more than 200 billion euros – about $ 243 billion – of European Union Recovery Fund.
Renzi also demands that the government accept a separate amount of 36 billion euros – about $ 44 billion – made available by the European Union and intended for Italy’s healthcare system. The Five Star, which came to power expressing anti-establishment anger against Brussels, dismissed the source of this funding, called the European Stability Mechanism, as anathema to its populist roots.
For weeks, Mr. Conte and Mr. Renzi played a chicken game. Renzi’s already devastating popular support has reduced the disadvantage of doing something unpopular. Having nothing to lose gave him more advantage in his confrontation with Mr. Conte, who actually gave in to many of Renzi’s demands.
But the prime minister stood firm in his refusal to accept money from the European Stability Mechanism.
In the race for Renzi’s leap, Salvini, the populist leader, salivated at the prospect of another chance at power.
“Better an election or a center-right government than this dispute,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a protest in Rome.
On Wednesday night, Renzi said he is opposed to the possibility of new elections. To prevent this from happening, he could return his support to Mr. Conte, but in a crisis things are unpredictable and can get out of hand. For that reason, government officials tried to pull Renzi out of the abyss.
The hardest members of the Five Star have ruled out the possibility of working with Renzi’s party again if he causes the government to collapse.
It is unclear where this leaves Renzi, or Italy.
Some of Italy’s leading virologists are clearly disgusted by political distractions in a health emergency.
“The orchestra plays while the Titanic sinks,” Massimo Galli, director of the infectious disease department at the Luigi Sacco hospital in Milan, told Italian television. “There is a chance that next week we will have hospitals in serious trouble again.”