MILAN (AP) – Former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi is testing his already low popularity by provoking a political crisis that could topple the Italian coalition government at a critical time in the coronavirus pandemic.
Renzi orchestrated the dismissal of two ministers from his small but important Italia Viva party. The outcome of his power play will become more apparent this week when Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte addresses both houses of parliament. If Conte makes a successful bid for support, he could go on to form what would be his third coalition government since the 2018 Italian election.
RENZI’S POWER PLAY
This is not Renzi’s first foray as an iconoclast shaking Italian politics. He became Prime Minister in 2014 by maneuvering and unceremoniously overthrowing then-Democratic Party member Enrico Letta as Italy’s leader. Renzi himself fell from power almost three years later after gambling his popularity in a constitutional referendum that failed.
Now the 46-year-old former mayor of Florence can overthrow Conte. He broadly accuses the prime minister of not managing the coronavirus crisis well. Renzi says he only follows his conscience, at great political cost.
“Italia Viva has not started the crisis. It’s been going on for months, ”he said at a press conference last week.
Renzi, a senator from the Italia Viva party, backed Conte during a previous failed coup by Matteo Salvini, the leader of the right-wing League party that was part of Conte’s first government.
New polls show junior coalition partner Italia Viva has the support of just 2.4% of respondents, down from 6.2% at the start of the party. Italia Viva was founded in September 2019 when Renzi turned the Democratic Party he once led. He brought two cabinet members with him, giving himself the power he had last week.
CONTE’S NEXT MOVEMENT
With the resignation of the Italia Viva ministers, Conte is working to strengthen support in parliament among independent lawmakers. He still has the backing of the Democratic Party and the 5-Star Movement, who have criticized Renzi’s action as irresponsible.
Conte will plead in the House of Representatives on Monday and in the Senate on Tuesday. A vote takes place after each performance, which amounts to a vote of confidence.
If he doesn’t get enough support, Conte will likely resign to Italian President Sergio Mattarella. In that case, there could be a technical government. Analysts believe that early elections are the least likely outcome, due to the difficulty of holding a political campaign and elections during the pandemic. There are also concerns that the right-wing opposition would grow stronger and possibly lead a new government. The current majority wants to keep it at least until January 2022, when a new president has to be elected.
Conte could survive to lead what would be his third government by bringing together enough support in both houses. And it is still possible that Italia Viva will restore its support.
WHAT’S AT THE GAME
Italy expects to manage EUR 222 billion ($ 268 billion) in European Union economic recovery funds, money that is critical to the modernization of the country and its weak economy.
While Conte had widespread support during Italy’s devastating relaunch with the coronavirus in the first half of 2020, cracks in his popularity have emerged during the even deadlier fall resurgence. Four months after the government introduced the tiered restriction system, newly confirmed daily infections remain stubbornly high, and Italy’s death toll of 81,800 pandemics is the second highest in Europe, after Britain.
The Conte government has also come under fire for not keeping high schools open during the pandemic, a decision usually linked to insufficient transportation to allow for social aloofness. And there are concerns that Italy does not have enough medical staff to run the country’s vaccination campaign.
But the crisis was eventually fueled when Conte presented a plan that would have put him in charge of managing the EU recovery funds. Political analyst Wolfgang Piccoli called it “the ultimate mistake”, taking Renzi’s step to affirm his own “fame”.
Italians show little patience for the political infighting when the country’s priority is to get the coronavirus pandemic under control and roll out the vaccines many hope will end the country’s long coronavirus nightmare. In a new poll, 42% of Italians said they didn’t understand what was causing the latest divisions in government.
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