Resignation of Italy’s PM

Why in news?

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte resigned after disagreements within the government; he, however, continues to be the caretaker PM.

How did the Conte government come to power?

In the March 2018 parliamentary elections, an anti-incumbent vote helped the Five Star Movement and the League party get the most number of seats in the country’s legislature.
Notably, both are non-mainstream political groupings.
Both Five Star Movement and the League Party ran on an anti-establishment agenda during the elections.
No party got majority in the elections, and so, it was planned to keep the incumbent parties away and offer a populist alternative.
Thus, in June 2018, both groups came together to form the government with Conte as Prime Minister.
[Conte was relatively unknown before the 2018 national elections.
However, he became the country’s leader after the Five Star Movement and the League party sought a compromise candidate to lead their coalition.]
Luigi Di Maio and Matteo Salvini, leaders of the Five Star Movement and the League party, respectively, were made as Deputy Prime Ministers.

What led to Conte’s resignation?

The coalition was more an opportunistic alliance between a far-right nativist party and a professed ideology-less anti-establishment group.
The 5-Star Movement lacked any ideological alternative to offer other than its anger towards Italy’s centre-left and conservative establishment parties.
Serious disagreements emerged between the coalition parties while in government.
Opinion polls suggested that the League Party could get up to 38% of the popular vote if polls are held soon.
Mr. Salvini is thus on course to become Prime Minister.
The current crisis was thus triggered by Mr. Salvini’s decision to withdraw from the coalition.
Eventually, Conte tendered his resignation without waiting for a no-confidence motion.

Who is Matteo Salvini?

The leader of the League Party, Salvini, was the interior minister in the short-lived government.
The rebel leader has consistently promoted his party’s rhetoric which is championing US President Trump and Russian President Putin while attacking the European Union.
He pushed for his party’s “Italy-first”, anti-immigrant, anti-EU agenda.
Salvini has a fiercely anti-immigrant stance and has called the intake of refugees as “organised migration”.
As Interior Minister, he banned migrant ships.
He also challenged the EU fiscal orthodoxy by calling for tax cuts and spending rises.
This appealed to the electorate still suffering under the effects of the debt crisis.
Salvini has now reportedly become significantly more popular than before the elections.
He is thus expected to lead the next Italian government.

What does this imply?

Mr. Salvini’s rise, from a regional leader in northern Italy to a popular nationalist political figure now, is also the story of Italy’s political and economic crisis.
When establishment parties shy away from addressing structural economic issues, the crisis opens avenues for anti-establishment forces.
In effect, Italy’s political centre is crumbling; the Left is weak.
The 5-Star Movement does not have an ideological programme.
Mr. Salvini, whose hard nationalist views echo the far-right politics on the ascent in Europe, seems determined to exploit the Italian crisis.

What next?

Now, President Sergio Mattarella alone has the power to dissolve the parliament.
He will be forced to do so only if there is no way for the government to continue.
But most parties currently in Parliament, except the League, fear that an early election would turn the tide against them.
So, the chances are high that Salvini would come to power.
On the other hand, if the Conte government has to survive, the Five Star Movement will have to find support from other political groupings in Parliament.

Source: Indian Express, The Hindu