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Italian PM Conte survives confidence vote on government’s future

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on Tuesday won a second confidence vote in the Senate, halting a bigger political crisis - but the government's future remains uncertain.

Published: 19 January 2021 23:04 CET

Italian PM Conte survives confidence vote on government's future

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte prior to the confidence vote at the Senate on Tuesday. Photo: Alessandra Tarantino/POOL/AFP

Conte survived the second crucial vote of confidence in parliament, but his coalition government was left weakened after it failed to secure an overall majority.

The premier won by 156 votes to 140 in the Senate, the upper chamber, but fell short of the absolute majority of 161.

The ruling coalition has been in crisis since former premier Matteo Renzi withdrew his Italia Viva party last week.

PROFILE: Who is Matteo Renzi, the 'wrecker' of Italian politics?

Conte has been desperately seeking the backing of opposition lawmakers to allow his coalition government, formed in 2019, to stay in power.

“The government has also got the confidence of the Senate. Now the goal is to make this majority even more solid. Italy doesn't have a minute to lose,” Conte tweeted on Tuesday night, shortly after the vote

Il Governo ottiene la fiducia anche al Senato. Ora l’obiettivo è rendere ancora più solida questa maggioranza. L'Italia non ha un minuto da perdere. Subito al lavoro per superare l'emergenza sanitaria e la crisi economica. Priorità a piano vaccini, Recovery Plan e dl ristori

— Giuseppe Conte (@GiuseppeConteIT) January 19, 2021

Although the possibility of snap elections appears to be averted, at least for now, Conte's minority government has been weakened, and will be more vulnerable to attacks from the opposition in months ahead.

Giuseppe Conte wins the confidence vote in ?? Italy's Senate with a very slim simple majority. He can stay on, but it will be extremely difficult to govern. There will be more maneuvers in the coming day, but a strong government this is not. #Senato

— Ferdinando Giugliano (@FerdiGiugliano) January 19, 2021

“Today's vote will not bring the crisis to an outright end,” wrote Wolfgango Piccoli of the Teneo consultancy ahead of the vote.

“It remains unclear how such a weak and unwieldy coalition… can lead Italy out of the deepest economic crisis since World War II amid a pandemic.”

Conte's government won a first confidence vote late Monday in the lower house, but faced a tougher task persuading the Senate, where it lost its majority following Italia Viva's defection.

In both speeches to the Chamber of Deputies and Senate, Conte appealed for support from lawmakers from “the highest European tradition – liberal, popular and socialist”.

A view of the Senate at Palazzo Madama in Rome prior to the confidence vote on January 19th. Photo: Alessandra Tarantino/POOL/AFP

Conte's coalition is made up of the former anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S), the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) and a smaller leftist party.

Conte will hope over the coming weeks to persuade a few renegade Christian Democrat, conservative and socialist lawmakers, as well as former M5S members and defectors from Renzi's side, to join them.

The knife-edge nature of the vote was demonstrated by the decision of some lawmakers to attend despite coronavirus restrictions.

Liliana Segre, a 90-year-old Holocaust survivor and non-partisan lifetime senator, said she had contradicted her doctor's advice to travel from Milan to Rome to cast her vote for Conte.

'Difficult' Renzi

Italy was the first European country to face the full force of the pandemic early in 2020 and has been one of the EU's hardest-hit countries.

It has been allocated a large share of a 750-billion-euro ($904 billion) European Union rescue fund, but Conte's 220-billion spending plan was a trigger for the current turmoil.

For weeks, Renzi had criticised Conte for his leadership style and his handling of the pandemic, and warned that he and M5S risked squandering the EU billions.

Critics in turn accused Renzi – whose Italia Viva party is polling at just three percent – of seeking to deliberately destabilise the government so he can play kingmaker.

Conte compared Renzi on Tuesday to “someone who constantly fills the common path with mines” and said he found it “very difficult” trying to govern while being under attack.

Member comments

Anonymous - 20 January 2021 at 09:56 CET

Conte is just unbelievable, no you haven’t got a majority you have 156 votes when you need 161 votes.
What you do have is a weak and totally incapable government you should resign. Mattarella really should sort this out for the sake of Italy.

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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.