“The Council of Ministers meets tomorrow morning at 9:00 am, during which the Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, will communicate to the ministers his willingness to go to the (Presidential Palace) and deliver his resignation”, says the statement . Then he will see President Sergio Mattarella, he added.
The resignation is a calculated move that could give him another chance to form a government.
Conte survived two votes of confidence in Parliament last week. But he lost his governing majority in the Senate after his predecessor, Matteo Renzi, decided to remove the small Italia Viva party from the Conte coalition because of frustrations with the government’s management of the Covid-19 pandemic and the accompanying economic recession.
President Mattarella can choose whether to accept Conte’s resignation and will likely invite him to try to form a new governing majority. If Conte receives the mandate to form a new majority, he will need to add five more senators to the existing coalition.
Conte’s coalition, which was formed in 2019, is led by the center-left Democratic Party (PD) and the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S). Despite vast political differences, the unusual alliance avoided early elections that could have favored the far-right League Party.