By A.S.
Italian Conte coalition government, led by the alliance of the Five-Star Movement and the left-wing Democratic Party, has lost the majority in the parliament, after Matteo Renzi, head of the Italia Viva party left the coalition. Opinion polls show that a snap election could result in a new center-right government.
Matteo Renzi said that he could no longer support the current coalition of Giuseppe Conte. His decision comes after weeks of tensions over various disagreements in policy, at the center of which was the issue of how to spend coronavirus bailout cash. With his departure, Renzi took with him several key ministers, members of Italia Viva, including Minister of Agriculture Teresa Bellanova and Minister of Family and Equal Opportunities Elena Bonetti.
There are a few different scenarios that could follow after Renzi´s departure. It is believed that the preferred scenario of the Italian President Sergio Mattarella would be snap election, as opposed to a weak coalition in government.
In this case, opinion polls show that the elections could result in the formation of a new center-right government with Senator, and former Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister, Matteo Salvini´s League and the national-conservative Brothers of Italy scoring highly in polls released this week.
According to the poll, Salvini’s League is the most popular in Italy with 23.2 %, while the Brothers of Italy, led by Giorgia Meloni, scored 17.2 percent, just over two percentage points fewer than the Democratic Party which scored 19.4 percent.
Matteo Salvini released the statement on behalf of the center-right coalition, saying: “The center-right is the country’s leading political force and after a summit that confirmed the great unity of the coalition, asks that the prime minister take note of the crisis and resign immediately or, otherwise, appear in Parliament tomorrow to ask for a vote of confidence.”
He also said that they rely on the wisdom of the President of the Republic for a quick solution, adding that “the center-right parties clearly reaffirm their unwillingness to support left-wing governments”.