Italian President Sergio Mattarella was yesterday expected to ask Mario Draghi , the former European Central Bank (ECB) president credited with saving the euro, to try to lead Italy through the COVID-19 pandemic after last-ditch talks among squabbling politicians failed to produce a viable new coalition.
Mattarella summoned Draghi, 73, for a noon meeting yesterday at the Quirinale Palace.
He was expected to ask Draghi to try to form a non-political government to replace caretaker Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte’s coalition of the 5-Star Movement and Democratic Party.
Photo: Reuters
Conte was last month forced to resign last month after former Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi pulled his ministers of his small, centrist Italy Alive party from Conte’s government.
Renzi, whose nickname is “il rottamatore,” or “the demolisher,” complained among other things about Conte’s plan to spend more than 200 billion euros (US$240 billion) in EU funds and loans to help the economy recover from the pandemic.
Draghi, known as “Super Mario” for having rescued the common currency during Europe’s debt crisis, had been rumored as a possible choice to lead a non-political government if Conte was unable to find new parliamentary support.
A somber Mattarella on Tuesday night told the nation that while early elections were a possible outcome and a necessary “exercise in democracy,” they were ill-advised at this crucial time in the nation’s history.
With more than 89,000 confirmed virus deaths, Italy has the second-highest COVID-19 death toll in Europe after Britain.
It is trying to ramp up its vaccination campaign and must report back to the EU how it plans to spend the recovery funds.
“It is therefore my duty to make an appeal to all the forces in the parliament so that they grant the confidence to a high-profile government not linked to any political force,” Mattarella said.
The third-largest economy in the EU, Italy had been heading into a recession even before it became the first country in the West to be hit by COVID-19 in February last year.
The ensuing economic devastation has only made matters worse, with GDP falling 8.8 percent last year and nearly 450,000 jobs lost, national statistics agency ISTAT reported this week.
After the government crisis erupted, Mattarella asked Italian Chamber of Deputies President Roberto Fico to sound out political leaders to see if an alternative coalition could be formed.
Fico reported back on Tuesday evening that he had failed, and Mattarella then summoned Draghi.
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