Italian premier to resign in bid for coalition

ROME — Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte intends to offer his resignation today, his office said Monday, a move seen as a gamble that the leader will get a fresh mandate from the president to try to forge a more viable coalition.

Conte survived two confidence votes in Parliament last week but crucially lost his absolute majority in the Senate with the defection of a centrist ally, former Premier Matteo Renzi. The loss of his majority hobbled his government’s effectiveness in the middle of the covid-19 pandemic, which has devastated Italy’s long-stagnant economy.

Conte’s office said Monday night that the premier will inform his Cabinet at a meeting this morning of his “will to go to the Quirinale in his resignation.”

Then Conte intends to head to the palace to meet with President Sergio Mattarella, who as head of state can accept the resignation, possibly asking the premier to then see if he can assemble a more solid coalition that can command a dependable majority in Parliament.

Mattarella has frequently stressed the need for the nation to have solid leadership as it struggles with the pandemic.

After consultations with leaders of both government and opposition parties, the president could also decide to tap someone else deemed to have better chances of forming a more solid government. If no one can forge a more viable, dependable coalition, Mattarella has the option of dissolving Parliament, setting the stage for an election two years early.

Conte has led a long-bick16 months. Before that, for 15 months he headed a government still with the populist 5-Star Movement, Parliament’s largest party, but in coalition with the right-wing League party of Matteo Salvini.

That first government collapsed when Salvini yanked his support in a failed bid to win the premiership for himself.

Conte, while identified with the 5-Star Movement, doesn’t head any party. So, in a departure from Italy’s frequent political crisis, he won’t be part of the formal consultations with Mattarella, who meets with party leaders coming to the palace in rapid succession for talks.

Key support for whatever government might come next could come from the centrist opposition party of former Premier Silvio Berlusconi. Just hours before the announcedia mogul said he was trustin the “political wisdom” of Ma tarella to indicate the way o of the crisis.

“The high road is one o ly,” Berlusconi said in a stat ment. That solution would b a “new government that wou represent substantial unity the country in a moment emergency,” or it could be new election “to give back th (deciding) word to the Italia voters.

By the end of Februar the Italian government mu inform the European Unio how it intends to spend som $250 billion in recovery fund focused on reforming the cou try’s health and other instit tional systems.

One of Renzi’s issues wi Conte was what he contende was too much decision-ma ing power on the funding pr grams concentrated in the pr