Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi offered his resignation Thursday after his populist coalition partners, Five Star Movement, withdrew support during a parliamentary vote to tackle the cost of living crisis, according to the BBC.
“I will hand my resignation to the president of the republic this evening,” Draghi said in a statement, according to the BBC. “Today’s votes in Parliament are very significant from a political point of view. The national unity majority that supported this government since its creation no longer exists,” he continued, according to the outlet.
The Five Star Movement boycotted the vote of confidence, which included measures to offset the nation’s cost of living crisis, one of several crises impacting European countries, according to MSNBC. A government source reportedly said that Draghi spoke to President Sergio Mattarella immediately after the vote, who will now have to decide the best means of resolving the crisis, Reuters noted.
Mattarella reportedly rejected Draghi’s resignation, CNN reported. “The President of the Republic did not accept the resignation and invited the Prime Minister to appear before Parliament to make communications, so that an assessment of the situation that has arisen as a result of the outcome of the session held today in the Senate of the Republic could be carried out in its proper forum,” a statement from Mattarella said, according to the outlet.
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Draghi said that he had no interest in leading a government without the Five Star Movement, which became Italy’s largest party in the 2018 election, the outlet continued. (RELATED: Nancy Pelosi Proves It’s Pretty Easy To Smuggle Bombs Into Europe)
Former Italian prime minister and current European Union Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said that he was watching the events in Rome “with due detachment, but with worried astonishment,” according to the BBC. Draghi is the former head of the European Central Bank, and has led the southern European nation since February 2021, the outlet noted.
He is the second European leader to step down in July, after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson decided to leave the position earlier in the month. Unlike Draghi, Johnson had been repeatedly asked to resign after a series of scandals that included Rishi Sunak, one of the contenders to replace the British leader.