For the first time after leaving the governing coalition on Wednesday, the small party Italia Viva around ex-Prime Minister Matteo Renzi is again signaling its willingness to enter into a dialogue with Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. Renzi said in an interview with the Roman daily newspaper „Il Messaggero“ (Saturday edition) that he was ready to negotiate with Conte again, it was important that the issue was political.
According to Renzi, without his small party Italia Viva, the prime minister has little chance of mastering the vote of confidence in the Senate. The coalition of social democrats (Partito Democratico / PD) and the five-star movement, which had previously supported Conte, was unable to get 161 out of 315 votes in the Senate and to manage the vote of confidence, said Renzi. His party Italia Viva wants to abstain from the vote.
Conte before vote of confidence
“We have called on Conte to deal with a number of nodes that have so far remained unsolved in the coalition. If the Prime Minister does that, he can count on us, ”said Davide Faraone, parliamentary group leader of Italia Viva in the Senate.
In order to remain in office, Conte has to convince around 25 of the 630 members in the Chamber of Deputies and up to 18 more among the 315 senators. The non-party prime minister wants to use the weekend for political consultations and check whether he can form a new majority. The search for defectors has already begun in Rome.
Should Conte fail in the confidence vote on Monday in the Chamber of Deputies or on Tuesday in the Senate, President Sergio Mattarella should try to otherwise form a government of national unity. Otherwise there should be early elections.
