Italian premier Mario Draghi has won a confidence vote in the Senate, but it was a hollow victory after boycotts by three of his key coalition allies in the voting virtually doomed any prospects for his unity government’s survival.
The vote on Wednesday went 95-38 in the favour of Draghi’s government in the 315-member Senate after lawmakers deserted the roll call in droves.
The rapid unravelling of Draghi’s 17-month-old coalition could prompt President Sergio Mattarella to dissolve parliament, opening the path to holding an early election, possibly as soon as late September.
Just before the vote, representatives of the populist 5-Star Movement, the conservative forces of former Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right Forza Italia party, and right-wing senators of Matteo Salvini’s Lega (League) party announced they would skip the roll call.
Last week, Draghi had offered to step down after losing support from the 5-Star Movement, a major coalition partner. But Mattarella rebuffed the offer, asking him to go back to parliament to gauge his support.
After hours of debate on his fate on Wednesday, Draghi asked the Senate to vote on a confidence measure calling on him to keep on governing.
“The only way, if we want to stay together, is to rebuild this pact, with courage, altruism and credibility,” Draghi said in an uncompromising speech to the Senate, adding that many Italians wanted the coalition to carry on until elections due early next year.
Draghi had said repeatedly he saw no other governing alternative than the unusually broad coalition he led.
The crisis comes at a tough time for debt-laden Italy, the third-largest economy in the eurozone, where borrowing costs have risen sharply as the European Central Bank starts tightening its monetary policy.
In early 2021, Mattarella had tapped Draghi to form a government of national unity, grouping parties from the right, left and the 5-Star Movement to guide Italy through its economic reboot amid the pandemic and reforms linked to some 200 billion euros ($203.6bn) in European Union recovery funds.
