Draghi is being asked to stay on from all corners in Italy

This Wednesday is likely to be the most difficult day for Mario Draghi’s national unity government since it was formed in February last year. Will he really step down, or has ‘Super’ Mario Draghi – partly through pleas from home and abroad – been changed in recent days?

Last Thursday, Prime Minister Draghi, one of the most respected heads of government in Europe, approached Italian President Sergio Mattarella to tender his resignation. The prime minister did that because, according to him, a “serious problem of controllability” had arisen. The instigator of this political crisis is the Five Star Movement. He had decided not to show up for an important vote on a support package, which also involved a vote of confidence. Draghi interpreted this as a deep breach of trust.

But his offer of resignation was promptly refused by President Mattarella, who ordered the prime minister to go to parliament to seek a way out of the crisis. This Wednesday will therefore be a crucial day. In the morning, Draghi speaks in the Senate. An expected round of voting, Wednesday evening, will provide an important indication of how things will go on. The hot potato will be passed on to the House on Thursday, where the vote will also take place. Can the pieces still be glued?

Crucial time won

The end is still open, but by asking Draghi to return to parliament, the Italian president may have gained crucial time. In recent days, the Italians had the opportunity to react, and they did so en masse. Draghi is now being urged, almost pleading, from all quarters to “show responsibility”. Not only from politicians such as former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who organized a petition, but also from citizens who protested in Milan and Rome, waving Italian and European flags. And at least 1,300 mayors let Draghi know that the country needs him. A similar call for “responsibility” and “unity” comes from Italian doctors, Catholics and environmentalists.

Instability in Italy, the eurozone’s third-largest economy, is a crisis that the EU does not want to join

The EU is also keeping its fingers crossed for a good outcome. ‘Brussels’ entrusts Draghi with the proper management of the billions of euros that Rome is claiming from the European post-pandemic reconstruction fund, of which Italy is the largest beneficiary. Before the end of this year, important targets still have to be achieved and the budget has to be approved. Elections in Italy are in any case planned for the spring of 2023, but making a few extra months, according to those who want Draghi to stay, make a substantial difference. With war in Ukraine, rising energy prices and global inflation, instability in Italy, the third-largest economy in the eurozone, is yet another crisis that the EU really doesn’t want to join.

Benefit from early elections

Giorgia Meloni of the radical right-wing Brothers of Italy, the only party that opted for the opposition, could benefit from this government crisis. She scores high in the polls and benefits from early elections. This could tempt her political allies Matteo Salvini (Lega) and Silvio Berlusconi (Forza Italia) – their parties are in the Draghi government, but also form a political alliance with Meloni – to now campaign with the three of them. feed.

But the entrepreneurs – an important part of the Lega supporters – think early elections in these uncertain times are a bad idea. Moreover, such a quick election win may turn out to be a poisoned gift. A new right-wing government would now inherit an extremely complex situation – and then there would be no one else left to blame.