This week has been a turbulent time for Italian politics. The coalition government formed under Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte was rocked by Matteo Renzi, former Prime Minister and leader of Italia Viva: a liberal political party formed in September 2019. Matteo Renzi pulled out of the coalition government on the January 13th, citing grievances over Conte’s economic recovery plan.
As it stands, the Italian government is due to receive €209bn in European Union economic recovery funds; the largest share of all member states. Italy suffered greatly under the coronavirus pandemic, being the first European country to experience a mass wave. Though Conte was generally supported and praised for his management of the pandemic and consequential lockdown in the first half of 2020, his popularity began to decrease following the autumn resurgence of the virus. Italy’s coronavirus death toll of 84,674 is the second-highest in Europe; only Britain shows a higher toll. Matteo Renzi raised concerns that this money was to be “squandered” under Conte’s leadership.
Prime Minister Conte had been in discussion with Renzi from December 2020 to January 2021 but had refused to make changes called for by Renzi, on the grounds that he still had a majority in government. Renzi’s move, in announcing the resignation of two Italia Viva ministers, essentially set in motion a collapse of the government. Conte’s cabinet, sworn in on the 5th September 2019, is formed of a coalition, consisting of the anti-establishment ‘Five Star Movement’, the centre-left Democratic Party, and the leftist group ‘Free and Equal’. Italia Viva had announced its support of the government by Septemeber 17th 2019.
The government was formed of nine ministers from Five Star Movement, nine from the PD (Democratic Party), two from Italia Viva, one from Free and Equal, and three Independents, including Giuseppe Conte – formerly a lawyer. Once Renzi announced the resignation of two ministers from the cabinet (Teresa Bellanova, Minister of Agriculture; Elena Bonetti, Minister for Family and Equal Opportunities), Conte himself undertook these positions in an interim capacity, in order to maintain his government.
In order to stay in place, Conte’s government had to win a vote of confidence in both the lower house and the senate, which it succeeded in doing last week. Since, Matteo Renzi has come under significant fire, labelled by Italian media outlet ‘thelocal.it’, the ‘wrecker of Italian politics’. PD Leader Nicola Zingaretti has named Italia Viva as displaying “political unreliability”, by causing the government such distress.
According to The Guardian, Italian citizens themselves are widely unimpressed with Renzi for throwing the country into political jeopardy: Angela Giuffrida reports that in a survey conducted last week, “73 per cent said it was not the time for a political crisis and believed Renzi was merely pursuing his own interests”. Renzi himself has defended his move, claiming that “Italia Viva did not start the crisis. It has been going on for months”, in regard to mismanagement of the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent recovery funds.
Although Conte’s government has maintained its hold- and a snap election does not seem likely in the coming weeks- Renzi’s move has greatly weakened the government. Though winning a vote of confidence, Conte lost his majority in the upper house (the senate) and now, in leading a minority government) will be far more vulnerable to future attacks by the opposition.
Italy’s political and economic balance have both been threatened, impacted indubitably by the coronavirus pandemic. In the last year, Italy opted to make use of EU funds, which France and Germany both strongly opposed. Many now wonder, both Italians themselves and other European member states, how Italy can conceive of recovery with such political infighting and grandstanding as displayed by Matteo Renzi.
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