Mario Draghi, a former European central banker who has led the Italian government since last year, has announced he is stepping down on Thursday.
“I would like to announce that I will resign (and tender my resignation) to the President of the Republic later this evening”, he announced, shortly before an urgent meeting of Italy’s Council of Ministers urgently convened at 6:15 PM (12 PM ET).
“Ever since my inaugural speech in Parliament I have always said that my executive would go ahead only if there were a clear prospect of being able to carry out the program on which the political forces had voted”, Mr. Draghi said. “Such compactness has been fundamental in facing the challenges of the last few months (but) those conditions are no longer there today.”
The prime minister also thanked his fellow ministers “for your work and the many results (we) achieved”. “We must be proud of what we have achieved, at a very difficult time, in the interest of all Italians”, Mr. Draghi said.
Once on the Hill, however, the President of the Republic did not accept the resignation and invited the Prime Minister to appear to the Parliament to make communications, so that an evaluation of the situation that has been determined following the outcomes of the session held today in the Senate could be carried out in its proper forum.
If a new general election were to take place today, according to the latest surveys conducted by Swg for TgLa7, far-right Brothers of Italy party would lead with 23.5 percent of preferences, followed by the center-left Democratic Party at 21.7 percent and Matteo Salvini’s The League at 14.5 percent.
