Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has arrived in the upper house of the Italian parliament that will have to decide on Tuesday whether or not to give confidence to the current government after two ministers stepped down last week, a Sputnik correspondent reported
GENOA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th January, 2021) Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has arrived in the upper house of the Italian parliament that will have to decide on Tuesday whether or not to give confidence to the current government after two ministers stepped down last week, a Sputnik correspondent reported.
On Monday, the same vote took place in the chamber of deputies, which expressed its support to the government with 321 votes for and 259 votes against.
It is expected to be much harder for the premier though to secure a majority in the senate (the absolute majority is not required, a simple margin would be enough).
Last week, senator, former prime minister and leader of Italia Viva party, which until now has been part of the governing coalition, Matteo Renzi announced the resignation of two of his ministers from the cabinet in protest against the economic recovery plan, or National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), promoted by Conte and adopted on Wednesday morning. PNRR specifies how Italy is going to administer funds that it is going to receive from the European Union's Next Generation EU instrument.
Technically, the majority in the Senate, which is composed of 315 elected and 6 life senators, is 161 votes. However, Renzi announced on Saturday in an interview with Italian media that Italia Viva (18 senators) would abstain from voting. The party did so on Monday during the vote in the chamber of deputies.
In this case, Conte will have to secure at least 152 votes in the senate in support of his government. The parties forming the governing coalition excluding Italia Viva give him 136 votes. Five senators from the group Liberi e Uguali (Free and Equal) have also expressed intention to support Conte, which gives him in total 141 secure votes. The group Associative Movement of Italians Abroad (MAIE), which has four senators, is also going to be on the premier's side in order to avoid crisis and new elections. It means that at least seven more votes Conte will have to find from the mixed group of senators, as center-right political forces (Brothers of Italy, Forza Italia, Lega) have already announced that they would not cooperate with the center-left government and called for new elections.
If Conte does not pass the confidence vote in the Senate, the chances of which will grow if Italia Viva decides to vote instead of abstaining, he will have to resign. Then either a technical government or new elections would be the options.
