The Prime Minister of Italy, Giuseppe Conte intends to hand in his resignation on Tuesday, after a morning discussion with his cabinet of ministers.
Giuseppe Conte is an Italian university professor, jurist, lawyer and politician, who has been serving as Prime Minister of Italy since 1 June 2018. Conte spent the majority of his career as a law professor and was also a member of the Italian Bureau of Administrative Justice from 2013 to 2018.
Conte hopes that his resignation, which comes after weeks of political unrest in Italy, will allow him to form a new coalition government, with a new mandate.
Conte lost his majority in the upper house Senate last week when the centrist Italia Viva party led by former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi quit the country’s coalition government in a dispute over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic and economic recession.
Italy’s economy had fallen into recession during the end of 2020, and its mishandling of the Coronavirus has deepened the damage.
The prime minister’s office said in a statement Conte “will inform his ministers of his intention to resign” at a meeting convened for 9 am (08:00 GMT). “He will then go to see President Sergio Mattarella,” it added.
The President can approve his resignation while granting him permission to form a stronger coalition, to garner a strong majority in Parliament. Or, the request can be declined, but the President has often encouraged a united front to battle the pandemic and improve the economy.
According to reports from Al Jazeera, there isn’t a guarantee that a new coalition will be formed, and always there is always a risk that early elections might end up as the only viable solution.
