The head of the Italian co-ruling party Italia Viva, Matteo Renzi, has announced the resignation of the two ministers appointed by his party. These are Agriculture Minister Teresa Bellanova and Family Minister Elena Bonetti. Renzi announced this at a press conference in Rome. As the Ansa news agency reports, the State Secretary in the Foreign Ministry, Ivan Scalfarotto, also wants to resign. With the departure of the Italia Viva (IV) party, the crisis in the center-left government of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte is worsening.
The Conte cabinet has launched an economic stimulus program worth 222.9 billion euros to overcome the corona crisis. The two ministers of the Italia Viva (IV), the party of ex-Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, refused to approve and abstained. The IV has strong reservations about the aid package.
Complicated coalition
The independent Prime Minister Conte had sent his draft for the use of around 210 billion euros from the EU reconstruction fund internally on Monday. For weeks, ex-Prime Minister Renzi has been criticizing the concepts as unacceptable. According to media reports, the ministers Bellanova and Bonetti recently demanded again that Rome should apply for funds from the European rescue fund ESM. Conte and the five-star movement, which the head of government is close to, reject this.
The head of Italia Viva, ex-Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, at his press conference in Rome
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The fronts are hardened. The government often relies on the votes of Italia Viva in parliament. In Conte’s alliance, the populist five-star movement and the Social Democrats (PD) are the great forces. In addition to Italia Viva, there is also the second mini-party Liberi e Uguali (The Free and Equals). Renzi founded his party in 2019 after leaving the PD.
Renzi said, however, that he assumed that the non-party Conte had already found other supporters in the Senate to replace the IV. One possible scenario is that Conte will seek a vote of confidence in the event that the IV is withdrawn in order to gain new parliamentary support with new supporters. In order for the economic stimulus plan to come into force, it has yet to be passed by parliament. The deadline for applying for funds is April. “We have to hurry,” Conte had said in the run-up to the cabinet vote.
Bond market under pressure
Because of the impending rupture of the Italian government, numerous investors had already withdrawn from the country’s bonds on Tuesday. This drove the ten-year performance to a six-week high of 0.629 percent. “Should ex-Prime Minister Matteo Renzi live up to his threat and withdraw ministers from the government, this could lead to price losses not only in Italy, but also in the entire euro zone,” warns portfolio manager Thomas Altmann from the investment advisor QC Partners.
sti / dk / se (dpa, rtr, afp)
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