Draghi quits after M5S confidence-vote snub

(ANSA) - ROME, JUL 14 - Premier Mario Draghi told his cabinet on Thursday that he was quitting after Senators from the 5-Star Movement (M5S), a key part of his ruling coalition, failed to take part in a confidence vote on a government decree. He then went to the Quirinal Palace in Rome to give his resignation to President Sergio Mattarella.
    "The pact of trust at the base of the government's action no longer exists," former European Central Bank (ECB) president Draghi told his ministers.
    "The conditions no longer exist to realize the (government's) programme.
    "Total commitment was not enough. We must be proud of the work done".
    It is now up to Mattarella to decide what the next steps in the crisis of government will be.
    It seems likely that Italy will have early elections in the coming months.
    M5S leader and ex-premier Giuseppe Conte had announced on Wednesday that the movement's lawmakers would snub Thursday's vote.
    Conte had recently presented Draghi with a list of demands he said the M5S wanted to be met in order to stay in the executive.
    On Tuesday Draghi showed willingness to reach agreement on some of these issues, including a demand for the introduction of a minimum wage.
    But he also stressed that the sense of his government of national unity would be 'lost" if the parties supporting it started to lay down ultimatums.
    The decree, on aid for the cost-of-living crisis, passed with 172 votes in favour and 39 against.
    It incudes a measure on plans for a waste-to-energy plant in Rome, something the M5S opposes.
    Conte said Thursday that others were to blame for the M5S's decision not to take part in the confidence vote.
    "The M5S gave its support from the start to this government...
    with the cornerstones of the ecological transition and social justice," Conte told reporters.
    "If then you have blackmail in which measures contrary to the ecological transition enter a decree, we will never give our vote.
    "Those who forced things in this way they should take responsibility (for what has happened)".
    League leader Matteo Salvini and FdI head Giorgio Meloni have been calling for early elections.
    On Thursday Salvini spoke of "full harmony within the centre-right" alliance, which also includes ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia as well as FdI and the League. The M5S and the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) had been expected to run as allies at the next election, which had been set to take place early in 2023 at the end of the current parliamentary term.
    PD leader Enrico Letta said that the M5S's position on the Draghi government "changes the political scenario.
    "We take note of this decision," Letta added.
    "It isn't ours and we don't agree with it.
    "Today we will support the confidence vote with conviction".
    Draghi's administration was formed early in 2021 to address the COVID-19 pandemic and manage almost 200 billion euros in grants and low-interest loans from the European Union for Italy's National Resilience and Recovery Plan (NRRP) after ex-premier Conte's second government collapsed.
    Up to now Draghi's executive had been supported by all the major parties in parliament, except for the right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) group.
    Some political commentators see the break with the government as a way for the once anti-establishment M5S to reaffirm its identity.
    The Internet-based movement was only founded by Beppe Grillo in 2009 but it fast won support among people disaffected by Italy's traditional parties and it was the individual group that won most votes in the 2018 general election.
    It has now been part of three coalition governments though and, with the compromises that come with being in power, a signification chunk of its support has fallen away recently.
    The M5S is currently fourth in the polls with the support of around 12% of the electorate, according to surveys.
    It is no longer the biggest party in parliament after Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio quit to form a breakaway group following a row over Conte's opposition to sending more weapons to Ukraine. (ANSA).