Virus-plagued Italy In Political Turmoil After PM Quits

Rome, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Jan, 2021 ) :Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte resigned Tuesday in the hope of forming a new government after weeks of turmoil in his ruling coalition, leaving Italy rudderless as it battles the deadly coronavirus pandemic.

He will stay on in a caretaker capacity while President Sergio Mattarella, the ultimate arbiter of Italian political crises, discusses the next steps with party political leaders, starting Wednesday.

Conte wrote on his Facebook page that Italy was "going through a truly difficult time" which required "a clear perspective and a government with a larger and safer majority".

"My resignation serves this possibility: the formation of a new government that can offer a prospect of national salvation," he wrote, adding he hoped to form an administration that was "loyal to European ideals".

The centre-left coalition that has led Italy since September 2019 was dealt a fatal blow earlier this month by the withdrawal of former premier Matteo Renzi's small but crucial Italia Viva party.

Ahead of a key vote in parliament that he looked set to lose, Conte submitted his resignation to Mattarella, the first step in trying to form a new government with a strengthened majority.

Conte's exit, which follows weeks of tensions between him and Renzi over the government's handling of the pandemic, barely caused a ripple on the financial markets.

But it leaves a vacuum at the top of the eurozone's third largest economy as a major decision looms on how to spend billions of Euros in European Union recovery funds.

Renzi had criticised Conte's 220-billion-euro ($267 billion) spending plan as a wasted opportunity to address some of Italy's long-term structural problems.

"Italy's political crisis could hinder attempts to agree and implement a credible post-pandemic growth strategy," the Fitch ratings agency said in a statement.