Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte handed in his resignation to the head of state yesterday, opening the way for formal consultations on how to overcome the political crisis, the president’s office said.
President Sergio Mattarella will start consultations with party leaders this afternoon, his office said in a statement, adding that Conte had been asked to stay on in a caretaker capacity as the talks continued.
Conte lost his absolute majority in the upper house Senate last week when a junior partner, the Italia Viva party headed by former premier Matteo Renzi, quit in a row over the government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis and economic recession.
Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, one of the leaders of the populist Five Star Movement (M5S), the largest in parliament, earlier said it was time to rally around Conte. “The country is going through one of its worst ever periods due to the pandemic,” he tweeted late Monday. “Now we need unity, we all have to gather around Giuseppe Conte.”❐
