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Five-star boss Vito Crimi cracks down on dissenters
Photo: GUGLIELMO MANGIAPANE / REUTERS
The new Italian government led by Mario Draghi is causing considerable tension within the country's most powerful party.
The five-star movement, which has the most representatives in both the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, has now decided to take a drastic step.
After the first vote of confidence in the Senate, the party excluded 15 of its members from the parliamentary group.
The interim leader of the populist party, Vito Crimi, announced on Facebook that these were those who voted against the government of the new Italian Prime Minister Draghi in the vote in Rome.
He asked the parliamentary group leaders to kick them out of the parliamentary group in accordance with the statutes.
Before the vote, the five-star movement had agreed internally in an election to support Draghi's cabinet.
However, the dispute continued thereafter.
Draghi can count on great support
On Wednesday, a clear majority in the Draghi Senate had expressed confidence.
For the government of the former head of the European Central Bank (ECB) and its plans, 262 senators voted on Wednesday evening, with only 40 votes against and two abstentions.
It is difficult to make compromises, emphasized party leader Crimi on Facebook.
In this case, however, the decision in favor of Draghi was made in the interests of the Italian citizens.
A vote on a new government will decide who will be in the government majority and who will be in the opposition in the future.
According to Crimi, the 15 renegade party members are now themselves "opposition" through their voting behavior.
The Five Star Movement is the strongest force in the Italian Parliament.
In 2018 she received more than 30 percent of the vote in the elections.
The expulsion of the 15 members does not change the party's status as the strongest parliamentary group in the Senate.
The five-star movement has four ministers in Draghi's cabinet - including Luigi Di Maio, the foreign minister.
In the exploratory talks before the cabinet was formed, the party had insisted on some of its demands, such as the creation of a ministry for ecological conversion.
Draghi complied.
On Thursday evening, the ex-ECB boss wants to face the second vote of confidence in the Chamber of Deputies, the larger of the two chambers of parliament.
A majority for him is considered certain.
It is the final hurdle that Draghi is constitutionally required to take after being sworn in on Saturday.
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