Italian PM Mario Draghi says he will resign as coalition government collapses

Mario Draghi on Thursday said he would quit as Italian prime minister, after a political party in his ruling coalition in Rome refused to participate in a confidence vote earlier in the day.

“I will tender my resignation to the president of the republic this evening,” Draghi told the Cabinet, according to a statement translated by Reuters, throwing Italian politics back into a fragile state of affairs.

“The national unity coalition that backed this government no longer exists,” he said.

The Italian head of state on Thursday rejected the Draghi’s resignation and asked him to address parliament to get a clear picture of the political situation, a statement from President Sergio Mattarella’s office said.

The Five Star Movement, one of the parties in the coalition government led by Draghi, opposed a new decree aimed at lowering inflation and battling rising energy costs. Analysts, however, have contended that the opposition to this policy package is not so much ideological but a result of internal party disputes.

Italy’s lawmakers held a confidence vote on the wide-ranging policy package Thursday. Five Star boycotted the vote despite Draghi previously threatening to step down if the party didn’t back it.

“The move by the M5S was largely triggered by turmoil prevailing within the ailing party rather than by meaningful policy differences with the executive,” Wolfango Piccoli, co-president of the consultancy firm Teneo, said in a note Thursday.

Draghi has been in power since February 2021 and has led a government formed by several parties and technocrats with the aim of bringing stability to the southern European nation, which is often thrown into fresh rounds of political chaos.