Throughout the day the Italians have been contemplating how the continuity of their Government was played to heads or tails. In the end, it was a cross. The right-wing parties that supported the government coalition, that is, Matteo Salvini's League and Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia, have decided that they prefer an electoral advance to continuing to govern together with the 5-Star Movement (M5E). They have just announced that they will not vote for the continuity of Mario Draghi's government, pushing the country into early elections in the fall. Although it was already irrelevant, the grillini have opted for the same thing: they have not been convinced by the program of the former president of the European Central Bank and they will be absent from the classroom.
"We believe in a new pact, we believe in the conductor, but not in the out-of-tune members of the orchestra," Berlusconian senator Anna Maria Bernini told him. "This crisis has not been wanted or caused by Forza Italia", she added before announcing that, "bitterly but calmly", they were going to leave the classroom during the vote on confidence. The league senator Stefano Candiani – Salvini did not want to take the microphone – has gone in the same direction.
The still Italian Prime Minister had to decide today whether to confirm his resignation or try again. He has chosen the second option, but conditioning his permanence on the fact that the parties agree to rebuild the government coalition based on a detailed program that ranged from completing the recovery plan to continuing to send weapons to Ukraine. In this way he passed the ball to the political parties: its continuity depended on them. "Parties, parliamentarians, are you prepared to rebuild this pact?" He had asked them.
The speech did not please the senators of the League, who were upset by some economic proposals. Matteo Salvini immediately retired to deliberate with his people. After another meeting in Villa Grande, the Roman residence of Silvio Berlusconi, and even a call with Sergio Mattarella, the right-wingers have chosen to up the ante and repeat that they would only be inside the government if the M5E stayed outside and if there was a deep remodeling.
In his reply, still with a harder face, Draghi seemed to make some concession to the right by having very serious words about some measures of the M5E. But in the end, he only voted for one resolution, the one presented by veteran Pier Ferdinando Casini, which only contained one line. Approve, or not, the text read by the prime minister. Or all or nothing, without the amendments put forward by the rightists.
Salvini and Berlusconi have not listened to the pleas of Mattarella or the sector of his party, voted for by businessmen in the north of the country, who play a lot with inflation, and have given orders to leave the classroom during the vote. It is very possible that they had already decided on it in a long meeting they held yesterday, and were only waiting to grab onto some part of Draghi's speech to announce it.
His calculation is that, with an electoral advance in the autumn, the right-wing coalition will achieve an easier victory than continue fighting with the M5E and the Democratic Party. It is a risky move, since in this way they are about to hand over the leadership of the next executive on a silver platter to the Brothers of Italy, Giorgia Meloni's far-right party, which is first in the polls. But surely they see it preferable to have a few fewer ministries than to gamble and wait for elections next spring.
Draghi had been determined to leave since the M5E broke the government majority on Thursday, but had backed down due to great international and Italian pressure to continue. "The support that I have seen in the country, the mobilization these days of citizens, associations , territories in favor of the continuity of the Government is unprecedented and cannot be ignored. It is what has encouraged me to propose a coalition pact and submit it to your vote. It is you who decide, "he said in reply. It has been negative. Now his resignation before Mattarella is a mere formality.
