Giuseppe Conte on Tuesday handed his
resignation as premier to President Sergio Mattarella, the
president's office said.
Conte, who left the presidential palace about 30 minutes after
entering, is expected to seek a mandate from the head of State
to form a new executive with a broader coalition.
It is highly uncertain, however, where the crisis will lead.
Matteralla, who as president is the referee of Italian politics,
is set to call a round of formal consultations with the parties
in parliament and other institutional figures before deciding
what to do.
The consultations will start Wednesday.
The government no longer had an absolute majority in the Senate
after ex-premier Matteo Renzi's Italia Viva (IV) party triggered
a crisis in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic by withdrawing
its support.
Attempts to bring in so-called 'responsible' or 'constructor'
lawmakers to support the government and make up for the loss of
IV were fruitless.
The centre-right opposition is calling for early elections to be
held, which opinion polls suggest it would win.
The three other parties in the government coalition, the 5-Star
Movement (M5S), the centre-left Democratic party (PD) and the
left-wing LeU group, have expressed staunch support for Conte.
Justice Minister Alfonso Bonafede, Culture Minister Dario
Franceschini and Health Minister Roberto Speranza on Tuesday
expressed backing for Conte in their respective roles as the
lead representatives within the government of the M5S, the PD
and LeU group after he told them he was resigning at a cabinet
meeting early on Tuesday, sources said.
The government survived two confidence votes in parliament last
week after IV pulled out but it failed to muster an absolute
majority in the Upper House.
Conte may have decided to quit now because the government risked
being defeated in a vote in the Senate on a report by Bonafede
this week.
If Conte does manage to put together a new government it will be
his third.
His first government, which lasted from June 2018 until August
2019, was backed by the M5S and Matteo Salvini's right-wing
League party.
Renzi's IV pulled its support over issues that included
differences over the plan on how to spend the over 200 billion
euros Italy is set to get from the EU's COVID-19 Recovery Fund.
Renzi had blasted the Recovery Plan as lacking ambition, making
hand-outs rather than structural investments, and ignoring
ministers and parliament in setting up task forces.
IV also complained about the government's failure to take
cash from the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) to invest in
the national health system, which has been pushed to the limit
by the coronavirus emergency.
There has been speculation that IV could come back into the
ruling alliance, even though the M5S and the PD had ruled out
reopening the door to Renzi's group.
Another possibility is for a new government to be formed under a
different premier, perhaps with the support of Silvio
Berlusconi's centre-right Forza Italia (FI) party to make sure
the government's COVID-19 Recovery Plan is delivered.
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