AFP, Rome :
Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte reacts after delivering a speech at the Italian Senate, in Rome, on 20 August 2019, as the country faces a political crisis. Photo: AFP
Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte resigned on Tuesday after lashing out at far-right interior minister Matteo Salvini for pursuing his own interests by pulling the plug on the government coalition.
The move leaves the eurozone’s third largest economy in a political vacuum until president Sergio Mattarella decides whether to form a new coalition or call an election after talks with parties in the coming days.
Mattarella charged Conte with heading a caretaker administration after he handed in his resignation, pending consultations on a new government which are set to begin at 1400 GMT on Wednesday.
“I’m ending this government experience here,” Conte said after an almost hour-long speech to the Senate.
“It is irresponsible to initiate a government crisis,” Conte said after Salvini tried to bring down the government in the hope of snap elections he
believes will make him premier.
Conte was speaking following a week of fallout from Salvini’s decision to back out of the alliance between his League party and the anti-establishment Five Star Movement on 8 August, plunging Italy into political turmoil.
After Conte announced his intention to resign, Senate speaker Elisabette Casellati told Salvini to leave the government bench and join his party’s senators, where Salvini said: “Thank you, finally, I would do it all again.”
“The Italians vote with their heads and hearts,” Salvini said, invoking the Virgin Mary to “protect the Italian people” and repeating his call for snap elections while also making a final appeal to M5S.
Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte reacts after delivering a speech at the Italian Senate, in Rome, on 20 August 2019, as the country faces a political crisis. Photo: AFP
Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte resigned on Tuesday after lashing out at far-right interior minister Matteo Salvini for pursuing his own interests by pulling the plug on the government coalition.
The move leaves the eurozone’s third largest economy in a political vacuum until president Sergio Mattarella decides whether to form a new coalition or call an election after talks with parties in the coming days.
Mattarella charged Conte with heading a caretaker administration after he handed in his resignation, pending consultations on a new government which are set to begin at 1400 GMT on Wednesday.
“I’m ending this government experience here,” Conte said after an almost hour-long speech to the Senate.
“It is irresponsible to initiate a government crisis,” Conte said after Salvini tried to bring down the government in the hope of snap elections he
believes will make him premier.
Conte was speaking following a week of fallout from Salvini’s decision to back out of the alliance between his League party and the anti-establishment Five Star Movement on 8 August, plunging Italy into political turmoil.
After Conte announced his intention to resign, Senate speaker Elisabette Casellati told Salvini to leave the government bench and join his party’s senators, where Salvini said: “Thank you, finally, I would do it all again.”
“The Italians vote with their heads and hearts,” Salvini said, invoking the Virgin Mary to “protect the Italian people” and repeating his call for snap elections while also making a final appeal to M5S.
