#Critical #time #Italys #Draghi #front #Parliament
Italy’s political crisis comes to a head on Wednesday as Prime Minister Mario Draghi finds out whether his shattered grand coalition can be salvaged or whether snap elections are inevitable.
The stakes are high: a government collapse could exacerbate social ills at a time of rampant inflation, delay the budget, jeopardize EU post-pandemic recovery funds and send jittery markets into a tailspin.
According to polls, most Italians want Draghi, 74, to remain at the helm of the eurozone’s third-largest economy until the scheduled general election next May.
But the former European Central Bank chief has pledged to do so only if the disparate parties in his coalition commit to responsible behavior.
Draghi will address the Senate on Wednesday morning. He can say that he just doesn’t trust the parties anymore.
Then Italy’s president could dissolve parliament and schedule new elections for September or October.
But experts said Draghi would instead likely call for a broad consensus to address Italy’s most pressing problems: from a cost-of-living crisis and recession concerns to the introduction of key reforms and the war in Ukraine.
His speech will be followed by a debate in which each party can present its point of view.
Draghi will then face a confidence vote, seen as a crucial step to undo the damage done by the populist Five Star Movement’s refusal to back him in a key vote last week.
If he survives all this, the trial will be repeated in the House of Commons on Thursday.
– ‘Compromise in the last ditch?’ –
Centre-left parties have announced they will back Draghi, but a question mark remains over right-wing Forza Italia and the Liga, which have ruled out staying in government with Five Star.
“We are in the middle of an Italian-style political crisis, so predictions are changing from one second to the next,” Giovanni Orsina, director of the Luiss School of Government in Rome, told AFP.
Five-Star boss Giuseppe Conte has urged Draghi to embrace the movement’s priorities, from a minimum wage to tax credits for energy-efficient home upgrades – something he is unlikely to do.
The populist party could split ahead of the vote, with Forza Italia and the League possibly agreeing to work with the breakaway element.
The Five Star Movement, once the largest party in Parliament, has already seen numerous defectors as it clutches at its radical, anti-establishment side to reverse falling poll support.
At least 15 more of his MPs are expected to resign if Five Star votes against Draghi, news agency AGI said.
“A last-minute compromise cannot be completely ruled out,” Lorenzo Codogno, a former chief economist at Italy’s finance ministry, said in a note.
– “Greater political uncertainty” –
However, rating agency Fitch warned that the political crisis “heralds greater political uncertainty, even if early elections are avoided”, with “structural reforms and fiscal consolidation likely to become more difficult”.
Two-thirds of Italians believe Draghi should stay, according to a Euromedia poll published on Tuesday. Nearly 2,000 mayors have signed a petition demanding he remain prime minister.
Hundreds of people took part in pro-Draghi sit-ins on Monday, while Spanish President Pedro Sanchez penned an opinion piece in Politico on Tuesday entitled “Europe needs leaders like Mario Draghi”.
Concerned investors are also watching closely. Wednesday’s vote comes a day before the European Central Bank unveils a tool to correct stress in bond markets for indebted euro-zone members.
The tool is intended for countries like Italy – but as Enrico Letta, leader of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), said on Tuesday: “If we don’t pull ourselves together, it will be more difficult to ask others to save us.” .
Social Tags:
#Critical #time #Italys #Draghi #front #Parliament
