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TIMELINE: What happens next in Italy’s government crisis?

Prime Minister Mario Draghi has resigned, meaning the collapse of another Italian government. So what happens now?

Published: 21 July 2022 11:58 CEST
Updated: 23 July 2022 15:03 CEST
Italy's Prime Minister Mario Draghi addresses the Senate in Rome on July 20, 2022.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi addresses the Senate in Rome on July 20, 2022. Photo by Andreas SOLARO / AFP.

The end finally came for Italy’s faltering coalition government on Wednesday, after three of the biggest parties sat out a key confidence vote in Prime Minister Mario Draghi.

READ ALSO: Why has Italy’s government collapsed in the middle of summer?

Draghi resigned on Thursday morning, marking the end of his ‘unity’ government, and President Sergio Mattarella dissolved parliament later that same day. Elections will now be held in early autumn.

So what does this mean for the country now?

Draghi caretaker government: July – late September

On Thursday Draghi handed in his resignation to Italian head of state President Sergio Mattarella for the second time in the space of a week – and this time it was accepted.

Draghi will now remain in place in a caretaker role with limited powers until autumn elections.  

He won’t be able to draft bills or approve legislative decrees except for when deadlines are imminently approaching, as is the case for Italy’s pandemic recovery plan (Piano Nazionale di Ripresa e Resilienza, or PNRR).

Early elections: September 25th (probably)

The Italian constitution states that elections must be held within 70 days of parliament being dissolved.

In the past, elections have always taken place in the 60-70 day window, to allow enough time for parties to campaign and for some would-be candidates to gather the requisite number of signatures to join the ballot.

That means that elections would be most likely to happen no earlier than Sunday September 25th, which coincides with the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashanah. This is a rarity, as Italy usually tries to avoid holding elections on religious holidays.

New government: October/November/December??

It can take weeks or even months for Italy to form a government after elections are over.

In 2018, it took 90 days for the Conte I government to be sworn in after the March 4th vote, notes news agency Ansa; in 2013, it took Enrico Letta’s coalition government 63 days.

In this case it’s likely to be quicker, as the so-called ‘centre-right’ (in reality, mostly hard-right) coalition of Brothers of Italy, Lega and Forza Italia are expected to be the clear winners, without the need to negotiate with other parties to form a majority.

Even when centre-right won a clear majority in 2008, though, it still took 25 days to form a government.

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EUROPEAN UNION

Italian PM Meloni to stand in EU Parliament elections

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Sunday she would stand in upcoming European Parliament elections, a move apparently calculated to boost her far-right party, although she would be forced to resign immediately.

Published: 28 April 2024 15:54 CEST
Italian PM Meloni to stand in EU Parliament elections

Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, which has neo-Fascist roots, came top in Italy’s 2022 general election with 26 percent of the vote.

It is polling at similar levels ahead of the European elections on from June 6-9.

With Meloni heading the list of candidates, Brothers of Italy could exploit its national popularity at the EU level, even though EU rules require that any winner already holding a ministerial position must immediately resign from the EU assembly.

“We want to do in Europe exactly what we did in Italy on September 25, 2022 — creating a majority that brings together the forces of the right to finally send the left into opposition, even in Europe!” Meloni told a party event in the Adriatic city of Pescara.

In a fiery, sweeping speech touching briefly on issues from surrogacy and Ramadan to artificial meat, Meloni extolled her coalition government’s one-and-a-half years in power and what she said were its efforts to combat illegal immigration, protect families and defend Christian values.

After speaking for over an hour in the combative tone reminiscent of her election campaigns, Meloni said she had decided to run for a seat in the European Parliament.

READ ALSO: How much control does Giorgia Meloni’s government have over Italian media?

“I’m doing it because I want to ask Italians if they are satisfied with the work we are doing in Italy and that we’re doing in Europe,” she said, suggesting that only she could unite Europe’s conservatives.

“I’m doing it because in addition to being president of Brothers of Italy I’m also the leader of the European conservatives who want to have a decisive role in changing the course of European politics,” she added.

In her rise to power, Meloni, as head of Brothers of Italy, often railed against the European Union, “LGBT lobbies” and what she has called the politically correct rhetoric of the left, appealing to many voters with her straight talk.

“I am Giorgia, I am a woman, I am a mother, I am Italian, I am a Christian” she famously declared at a 2019 rally.

She used a similar tone Sunday, instructing voters to simply write “Giorgia” on their ballots.

“I have always been, I am, and will always be proud of being an ordinary person,” she shouted.

EU rules require that “newly elected MEP credentials undergo verification to ascertain that they do not hold an office that is incompatible with being a Member of the European Parliament,” including being a government minister.

READ ALSO: Why is Italy’s government being accused of helping tax dodgers?

The strategy has been used before, most recently in Italy in 2019 by Meloni’s deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, who leads the far-right Lega party.

The EU Parliament elections do not provide for alliances within Italy’s parties, meaning that Brothers of Italy will be in direct competition with its coalition partners Lega and Forza Italia, founded by Silvio Berlusconi.

The Lega and Forza Italia are polling at about seven percent and eight percent, respectively.

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