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Renzi versus Conti: dispute over corona aid plunges Italy into government crisis

2021-01-13T06:31:41.631Z


Is a coalition break looming in Rome? Prime Minister Conte pushed through the "biggest investment plan of all time" against resistance, now Matteo Renzi is flirting with the end of the cooperation


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Prime Minister Conte in the Italian Parliament (archive picture)

Photo: Roberto Monaldo / dpa

Italy's economy is groaning under the strain of the corona crisis.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte wants to counter this with a large aid package - but it is also deepening the cracks within his governing coalition.

On the night of Wednesday the government cabinet approved the economic stimulus program with a volume of 222.9 billion euros.

However, two ministers from Conte's coalition partner Italia Viva (IV) refused to approve and abstained.

The IV has strong reservations about the aid package.

After the cabinet decision, the continued existence of the coalition is therefore seriously endangered.

The head of the IV, the former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, announced on the RAI television channel that his party would decide on Wednesday morning about its consequences of the cabinet vote.

This decision should then be announced at a press conference at 5:30 p.m.

If the IV leaves the coalition, Conte threatens to lose the majority in the Senate, on which he has been able to rely so far.

Revolt of a dwarf party?

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One possible scenario is that Conte will seek a vote of confidence in the event that the IV is withdrawn in order to gain new parliamentary support with new supporters.

Renzi has been criticizing Conte's handling of the corona pandemic for weeks and recently also criticized the economic stimulus plan, which is to be largely financed from the EU's corona aid fund.

209.9 billion euros should flow from this fund, the remaining 13 billion euros Conte wants to raise from Italian funds.

Economy Minister Roberto Gualtieri praised the project as "the largest investment plan Italy has ever seen."

With the help of EU funds, the country could "really change".

However, Renzi said the program would be wasteful of money and lack of long-term investment.

It is unclear how the use of funds will be controlled.

He also demands that Italy fall back on the euro rescue fund ESM.

Conte's largest government partner, the Five Star Movement (M5S), rejects this.

Backing for Conte

Conte made other changes to the package of measures under pressure from Renzi.

For example, aid to the health sector was doubled.

Nevertheless, IV ministers Teresa Bellanova (agriculture) and Elena Bonetti (family) abstained from the cabinet vote.

The M5S, however, remained loyal to the Prime Minister in the dispute over the aid package.

"Giuseppe Conte is the cement and cornerstone of this majority," M5S boss Luigi di Maio said on television on Tuesday.

The current center-left coalition has existed since 2019. After the right-wing extremist Lega of Matteo Salvini left the alliance with Conte, the M5S remained at the side of the head of government.

Then there were the Democratic Party (PD) and the IV. In order for the economic stimulus plan to come into force, it still has 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.

Matteo Renzi had been Prime Minister from 2014 to 2016, but announced his resignation after a lost constitutional referendum.

In 2019 he founded “Italia Viva”.

He wanted to emulate Emanuel Macron's movement "La République en Marche" in France, but Renzis IV has not yet achieved the success of the French model: In the Italian parliament, the party currently has just 31 of the more than 600 seats.

Icon: The mirror

beb / afp

Source: spiegel

All business articles on 2021-01-13

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