Mario Draghi is definitely the Italian prime minister in resignation, until the new, XIX convocation of the Parliament of the Italian Republic, elected probably on October 2, does not vote confidence in the new prime minister, the expression of the new majority.
On Wednesday evening, the vote on a controversial cost of the living bill passed in the Senate, but Draghi said: “The pact of trust underlying the government has failed”, writes The Guardian .
95 senators voted for the Government, 33 against – and the rest, out of a total of 321 members of the Senate, either did not vote, or were not even in the hall.
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A part of them remained in the assembly hall just so as not to lose the quorum. And so, not at all brilliantly, the XVIII convocation of the Italian Parliament collapsed.
Elections are coming soon
On Wednesday morning, Draghi, in a calm but sharp speech, demanded the renewal of the national pact that brought him to the Chigi Palace last February. He resigned five days earlier because one of the groups in the government coalition – PoKret 5 Star – refused to vote on confidence in the government. Sergio Mattarella, the president of the Italian Republic, refused the resignation and returned Draghi first to the Senate, then to the House of Representatives, to ask for a vote of confidence.
The road is definitely over at the first stage, in the Italian Senate. There, on Wednesday evening, not only the leaders refused to vote, but also the entire “government right center”, that is Berlusconi’s “private” liberal Forza Italia, and the sovereignist League led by Matteo Salvini. Moreover, the representative of the League gave a speech typical of an election campaign, clearly showing where the wind is blowing.
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Draghi had no choice but to climb the Quirinal hill again at 8:30 p.m. and confirm his resignation to President Mattarella. And Mattarella has no choice but to dissolve the parliamentary houses in the following days. Elections must be held within at least 50 and at most 70 days thereafter. The first Sunday of autumn is September 25, but it is not appropriate because then is Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Therefore, the vote will be held on October 2.
The resigned Draghi government remains in office
A new government can be formed a few weeks later, probably in November. Until then, Draghi’s resigned government remains in office, with full powers, because it was not voted no-confidence. But no one can turn its decrees into laws when there is no parliament. It can even prepare the budget for 2023, but it is defined and adopted by the new majority.
Draghi’s speech was very clear. Unusual for Rome, where both the state and the Church use vocabulary that needs to be translated. Draghi doesn’t need to be translated, but it can be summed up: I don’t compromise on anything important. I am not demanding the renewal of the national pact, Italy is demanding it from you. It’s up to you to decide.
The head of the opposition Brothers of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, responded to this with a tweet: In a democracy, the will of the people is expressed with the vote.
https://twitter.com/FratellidItalia/status/1549709112367366144
Meloni is right both in principle and in the method. With the current electoral law, the Center-Right coalition (Brothers of Italy, League, Forza Italia) will win overwhelmingly.
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– We have an opportunity to score a goal into an empty net! – they say from there. It is easily possible that they will have a two-thirds majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, which would allow the right to comfortably change the Constitution, without confirmation in a referendum.
