Italy PM Conte to resign today after defection to coalition majority over COVID-19 crisis

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte is set to step down on January 26, Tuesday after losing his majority, and the Italian cabinet will form a new coalition government. The leader will head to the presidential palace today to formally turn in his resignation at a meeting with President Sergio Mattarella, an official statement from Giuseppe Conte’s office said late Monday. Last week, as former Premier Matteo Renzi withdrew his centrist party, Italia Viva, from the ruling coalition, Conte's leadership weakened due to the thin majority despite his surviving a key vote of confidence in the Senate. 

Support for Conte’s cabinet narrowed after lawmakers and parliamentary groups withdrew support amid the heightened political turmoil due to the COVID-19 pandemic stripping off his governing majority in Parliament. The resignation, however, is expected to give Conte another chance at forming a government. “The Council of Ministers is convened for tomorrow morning at 9 am, during which the Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, will communicate to the ministers his will to go to the (Presidential Palace) and hand in his resignation,” the statement from Conte’s office read. “He will then see the President Sergio Mattarella, it added.

 “Conte has called a cabinet meeting for 9:00 am (0800 GMT) when he "will inform the ministers of his desire to resign", his office added. "We remain at Conte's side," a statement from M5S's leaders from both parliamentary houses, Davide Crippa and Ettore Licheri read. Italian foreign minister Luigi Di Maio said on Twitter: "The country is going through one of its worst-ever periods due to the pandemic, we all have to gather around Giuseppe Conte."

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To form a more viable coalition

Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte’s government found itself in the middle of criticism for his administration's ineffectiveness in the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic that has left Italy’s long-stagnant economy in shambles. While Conte survived two confidence votes in Parliament, his stepping down will provide the embattled Italian leader an opportunity to form a more viable coalition. Although, Head of state, President Sergio Mattarella might also reject the Italian premier’s resignation. Conte is likely to get a mandate to form a new majority, in which case, he would need to include 5 more senators to the existing coalition being led by the center-left Democratic Party (PD) and the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) since 2019.

Hours before the announcement by Conte's office about his resignation, former Premier Silvio Berlusconi told AP that he was "trusting the political wisdom” of Mattarella," adding that the high road is the only road. "Solution would be a “new government that would represent substantial unity of the country in a moment of emergency” or it could be a new election “to give back the (deciding) word to the Italian voters," AP quoted Berlusconi's statement. 

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