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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

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.
 

 
“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.

READ ALSO: The words and phrases you'll need to understand Italian political discussionsIf

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

  1. 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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POLITICS

Italy’s Liguria regional president arrested in corruption probe

The president of Italy's northwest Liguria region and the ex-head of Genoa's port were among 10 arrested on Tuesday in a sweeping anti-corruption investigation which also targeted officials for alleged mafia ties.

Published: 7 May 2024 12:52 CEST
Italy's Liguria regional president arrested in corruption probe

Liguria President Giovanni Toti, a right-wing former MEP who was close to late prime minister Silvio Berlusconi but is no longer party aligned, was placed under house arrest, Genoa prosecutors said in a statement.

The 55-year-old is accused of having accepted 74,100 euros in funds for his election campaign between December 2021 and March 2023 from prominent local businessmen, Aldo Spinelli and his son Roberto Spinelli, in return for various favours.

These allegedly included seeking to privatise a public beach and speeding up the renewal for 30 years of the lease of a Genoa port terminal to a Spinelli family-controlled company, which was approved in December 2021.

A total of 10 people were targeted in the probe, also including Paolo Emilio Signorini, who stepped down last year as head of the Genoa Port Authority, one of the largest in Italy. He was being held in jail on Tuesday.

He is accused of having accepted from Aldo Spinelli benefits including cash, 22 stays in a luxury hotel in Monte Carlo – complete with casino chips, massages and beauty treatments – and luxury items including a 7,200-euro Cartier bracelet.

The ex-port boss, who went on to lead energy group Iren, was also promised a 300,000-euro-a-year job when his tenure expires, prosecutors said.

In return, Signorini was said to have granted Aldo Spinelli favours including also working to speed up the renewal of the family’s port concession.

The Spinellis are themselves accused of corruption, with Aldo – an ex-president of the Genoa and Livorno football clubs – placed under house arrest and his son Roberto temporarily banned from conducting business dealings.

In a separate strand of the investigation, Toti’s chief of staff, Matteo Cozzani, was placed under house arrest accused of “electoral corruption” which facilitated the activities of Sicily’s Cosa Nostra Mafia.

As regional coordinator during local elections in 2020, he was accused of promising jobs and public housing in return for the votes of at least 400 Sicilian residents of Genoa.

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