MILAN (AP) – Former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi is testing his already low popularity, sparking a political crisis that could topple Italy’s coalition government at a critical juncture in the coronavirus pandemic.
Renzi orchestrated the resignations of two ministers from his small but important Italia Viva party. The outcome of his power play will become clearer this week when Premier Giuseppe Conte addresses the two houses of Parliament. If Conte makes a successful attempt to gain support, he could form what would be his third coalition government since the 2018 election in Italy.
RENZI’S POWER
This is not Renzi’s first foray as an iconoclast shaking Italian politics. He became prime minister in 2014 by unceremoniously maneuvering and dismissing then Democratic Party colleague Enrico Letta as Italy’s leader. Renzi himself fell out of power almost three years later, after throwing his popularity into a failed constitutional referendum.
Now, the 46-year-old former mayor of Florence can topple Conte. He widely accuses the prime minister of not properly managing the coronavirus crisis. Renzi says he is just following his conscience, at great political cost.
“Italia Viva was not the cause of the crisis. This has been going on for months, ”he said at a news conference last week.
Renzi, a senator from the Italia Viva party, supported Conte during an earlier failed failure by Matteo Salvini, the leader of the League’s right-wing party that was part of Conte’s first government.
New research shows that the junior partner of the Italia Viva coalition has the support of just 2.4% of respondents, up from 6.2% at the beginning of the party. Italia Viva was created in September 2019, when Renzi fled the Democratic Party he chaired. He brought with him two cabinet members, giving himself the kind of advantage he employed last week.
NEXT ACCOUNT MOVEMENT
With the resignation of the ministers of Italia Viva, Conte is working to gain support in parliament among independent legislators. He still has the support of the Democratic Party and the 5 Star Movement, which criticized Renzi’s action as irresponsible.
Conte will present his case in the Chamber of Deputies on Monday and in the Senate on Tuesday. After each presentation, there will be a verbal vote, equivalent to a vote of confidence.
If he fails to get enough support, Conte will likely submit his resignation to Italian President Sergio Mattarella. In that case, a technical government could be established. Analysts believe that an early election is the least likely outcome, due to the difficulty of running a political campaign and elections during the pandemic. There are also concerns that the right-wing opposition will gain strength and be able to lead a new government. The current majority would like to hold at least until January 2022, when a new president is to be chosen.
Conte can survive to lead what would be his third government, getting enough support in both houses. And it is still possible for Italia Viva to restore its support.
WHAT IS AT STAKE
Italy expects to have 222 billion euros ($ 268 billion) in European Union economic recovery funds to manage, money that is crucial to modernizing the country and its fragile economy.
Although Conte was widely supported during Italy’s devastating coronavirus round in the first half of 2020, cracks in its popularity appeared during the even more deadly resurgence of autumn. Four months after the start of the government’s staggered restrictions system, new confirmed daily infections remain stubbornly high, and the number of pandemic deaths in Italy at 81,800 is the second highest in Europe after Britain.
The Conte government is also being criticized for failing to keep high schools open during the pandemic, a decision largely linked to inadequate transportation to allow social distance. And there is concern that Italy does not have enough medical personnel to carry out the country’s vaccination campaign.
But the crisis was eventually stimulated when Conte came up with a plan that would put him in charge of managing EU recovery funds. Political analyst Wolfgang Piccoli called this “the final mistake”, creating Renzi’s move to reaffirm his own “prominence”.
Italians are showing little patience for domestic political struggles, when the country’s priority is to control the coronavirus pandemic and launch vaccines that many hope to end the country’s long-standing coronavirus nightmare. In a new survey, 42% of Italians said they did not understand what caused the latest government divisions.
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