Italy’s Renzi to resign on Wednesday evening

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi announced he would resign at 1800 GMT Wednesday (7pm in Italy), three days after suffering a stinging defeat in a referendum on constitutional change.

Published: 7 December 2016 15:26 CET

Italy's Renzi to resign on Wednesday evening

Renzi announcing his resignation on Sunday night. Photo: Andreas Solaro/AFP

The centre-left leader had announced he would step down immediately after the vote but was persuaded to stay on until the completion of parliamentary approval of Italy's 2017 budget, which happened on Wednesday.

“Budget law approved. Formal resignation at 1900. Thanks to everyone and viva l'Italia!” (“long live Italy!”), Renzi wrote on Twitter.

There had been speculation that Renzi would delay his final departure until Friday – Thursday being a public holiday in Italy – to give his party more breathing space.

The leadership of Renzi's centre-left Democratic Party (PD) was to meet later Wednesday for talks that will be crucial to his hopes of making a comeback at the next election.

The party is beset by internal divisions that were painfully exposed by Renzi's battle to modify Italy's constitution.

An election must be held by February 2018 but opposition parties are clamouring for it to be held up to a year early, saying the vote was effectively a vote of no confidence in the centre-left coalition.

Renzi reportedly favours a new election in two months time but there are several obstacles to that happening.

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The strike comes after Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama — who is close to Meloni — called a top RAI editor to complain about a television report into Italy’s controversial migration deal with his country.

The Usigrai trade union called the strike from May 6 to May 7 saying talks with management had failed to address their concerns.

It cited numerous issues, including staff shortages and contract issues, but in first place was “the suffocating control over journalistic work, with the attempt to reduce RAI to a megaphone for the government”.

It had already used that phrase to object to what critics say is the increasing influence over RAI by figures close to Prime Minister Meloni, who leads Italy’s most right-wing government since World War II.

However, another union of RAI journalists, Unirai, said they would not join what they called a “political” strike, defending the return to “pluralism” at the broadcaster.

Funded in part by a licence fee and with top managers long chosen by politicians, RAI’s independence has always been an issue of debate.

But the arrival in power of Meloni — leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party, who formed a coalition with Matteo Salvini’s far-right League party and the late Silvio Berlusconi’s right-wing Forza Italia — redoubled concerns.

Tensions erupted at the weekend amid accusations RAI censored a speech by a leading writer criticising Meloni ahead of Liberation Day on April 25, when Italians mark the defeat of Fascism and the Nazis at the end of World War II.

Both RAI’s management and Meloni have denied censorship, and the premier posted the text of the monologue on her social media.

In another twist, Albania’s premier confirmed Thursday he called senior RAI editor Paolo Corsini about an TV report on Sunday into Italy’s plans to build two migration processing centres on Albanian territory.

Rama told La Stampa newspaper the report was “biased” and contained “lies” — adding that he had not raised the issue with Meloni.

The “Report” programme claimed the costs of migrant centres, which are under construction, were already “out of control” and raised questions about criminals benefiting from the project.