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ITalia’s new prime minister, Mario Draghi, can start working on his ambitious government projects with strong signals of confidence from parliament. In Rome’s Chamber of Deputies, 535 politicians voted for Draghi’s cabinet on Thursday night. There were 56 votes against and 5 abstentions, the chamber announced. On Wednesday, the smaller Senate had clearly voted for the former president of the European Central Bank (ECB) in a vote of confidence.
This ends a political crisis that Italy blocked for weeks amid the corona pandemic. In the Senate, Draghi, 73, received 262 votes in favor. 40 senators voted against his new government, in which almost all parties are represented from right to left. Only the right-wing extremist Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) has announced strong opposition.
Demanding reform projects
Chancellor Luigi Di Maio of the Co-ruling Five Star Movement wrote on Thursday night after the vote on Facebook: “No arguments, no controversies. Now we need results for Italy ”. However, his party is a problem child of the new government. In both votes there were dissidents in the ranks of the populist movement who voted no or abstained. This caused controversy among the stars and quickly led to more than a dozen expulsions from the faction.
Draghi’s new alliance is the third government in the current legislature. The next regular parliamentary elections in the country of 60 million people are slated for 2023. That means: The long-time monetary guardian and his team don’t have much time to implement the demanding reform bills he’s aiming for.
Securing funds from Brussels
It is probable that the fight against the crisis of the crown will be in the center of the next months of government; variants of the virus that are also rampant in Italy are also exacerbating the situation. In addition, the economic output of the Mediterranean country collapsed by around nine percent in 2020, more than, for example, Germany.
New politician Draghi first presented his political agenda in the Senate on Wednesday. He announced a faster vaccination campaign and plans to reform the economy, administration and the tax system. In his words, the first priority is to draw up a reliable plan to secure Italy the around 209 billion euros from the EU reconstruction fund in Brussels.
Last Saturday, the head of state Sergio Mattarella swore in the economist and his cabinet of professional politicians and non-partisan experts. The former center-left government of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte lost a majority in mid-January in the dispute over EU aid. Conte resigned a little later.
