Less than a week after he received the vote of confidence from the Chamber of Deputies, the incumbent Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte will hand in his resignation later today.
According to his cabinet, at 8:00 AM GMT the prime minister "will inform his ministers of his intention to resign. He will then go to see President Sergio Mattarella".
His decision comes after he was accused of mishandling the COVID-19 pandemic, which killed more than 85,000 Italians. He also faced objections regarding how €209 billion from the €750 billion EU rescue fund were spent to tackle the pandemic-induced crisis.
Even though Conte will hand in his resignation to President Sergio Matterella, it does not mean that it will be approved. The best-case scenario is that the President could ask Conte to try to form a more stable coalition. Rumor has it that Giuseppe Conte will turn to the centre-right bloc led by Silvio Berlusconi.
On the other hand, the President could turn to another politician to form a new government or call for early elections – the last parliamentary elections were in March 2018.
The timing could not be any worst as the pandemic caused the most significant economic collapse in decades. But this could be Giuseppe Conte's trump: the avoidance of the turmoil of new elections during these difficult times.
Markets reacted little to the news, at the moment of writing, the country's benchmark Italy40 is trading 0.21% higher, while EUR/USD is at 1.2128.
Stay tuned for more!
Sources: euronews.com, bbc.com