Pomegranate – While the coronavirus pandemic The death toll soars worldwide, the latest victim being the Italian government. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte resigned, unleashing a political crisis while the country is plunged into the COVID-19 epidemic.
Conte’s center-left coalition government began to falter last week when former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi won the support of his dissident party, denying Conte an absolute majority in the government. Renzi scolded Conte for dealing with the health crisis and the economic recovery plan.
Last spring, Italy was the epicenter of the global pandemic and became the first country to impose a national blockade in an attempt to contain the virus – despite the devastating blow to the economy.
The effort seemed successful, as contagion and the mortality rate decreased significantly during the summer. But last fall, after the government loosened blocking restrictions, cases and mortality started to rise, and the second wave proved to be even worse than the first.
The death toll currently stands at over 85,000 people. In a country with 60 million inhabitants, it is the fifth highest COVID-19 mortality rate, per capita, in the world.
Given the early onset of the virus in Italy, the economy has struggled with the effects of the pandemic for longer than most other nations. It is the biggest beneficiary of an European Union investment plan for the economic recovery from coronavirus, with Rome expected to receive about $ 243 billion in EU funding.
Prime Minister Conte fought with Renzi’s party, his small coalition ally, over how to spend EU recovery funds, and Renzi left the coalition.
Massimo Di Vita / Archivio Massimo Di Vita / Portfolio Mondadori / Getty
But despite the alleged shortcomings of the Conte government, polls show that Italians still widely approve of their leadership and disapprove of disturbing applause at such a critical time in the country’s history, when hundreds of Italians die daily, companies face bankruptcy and vaccinations take longer. than expected.
Conte may not have died forever. He must try to form a new and broader coalition of lawmakers to fill the gap left by Renzi’s party.
For a political newcomer, Conte showed unusual survival skills. Few Italians had heard of the obscure law professor when he was appointed in 2018 to lead a coalition between Italy’s two largest populist parties, the 5 Star Movement and the anti-migrant party Liga.
In 2019, the League withdrew support and tried to force elections. But Conte brokered a new alliance, bringing Renzi’s center-left Democratic Party on board.
Notoriously unstable, Italy has had 66 different governments since World War II.