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Italy PM Conte Wins Crucial Senate Confidence Vote by Very Thin Margin
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January 20, 2021
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0:49Now PlayingItalian Premier Giuseppe Conte narrowly won a crucial Senate confidence vote on Tuesday, allowing him to keep his wobbly coalition afloat but failing to secure the reliable support needed from lawmakers to help him effectively govern Italy with its pandemic-pummeled economy.
The vote went 156 to 140 in favour of the prime minister.
But there were 16 abstentions, thanks to ex-Premier Matteo Renzi yanking his small Italia Viva (Italy Alive) centrist party from the centre-left coalition last week, jeopardising Conte's survival at the nation's helm.
Two of the yes votes came from the centre-right opposition party led by ex-Premier Silvio Berlusconi.
An absolute majority in the Senate is 161, so to pass critical legislation, including aid to help the economy, Conte faces the unpleasant prospect of having to rely on lawmakers outside his coalition.
Over the past days, he and his allies had struggled to find the numbers they need to get the confidence vote in the senate, something Conte openly acknowledged to the senators on Tuesday.
Renzi has faced harsh criticism for the power play during a pandemic and with billions of European Union funds on the line, but he has defended the move as necessary to prevent Conte from amassing too much power.
Conte, a lawyer by training hailed for his mediation skills, was tapped by the 5-Star Movement to run the government after indecisive 2018 elections led to a coalition of the 5-Stars with a right-wing led by League leader Matteo Salvini.
That government fell when Salvini, then interior minister, mounted a failed power grab.
Conte was able to form a new government with the support of the left-wing Democratic Party, which then included Renzi.
The former premier later defected the party he once ran, ensuring himself the ability to shake up the government by deploying local ministers.
Renzi acted after Conte unveiled a plan to manage the EU recovery funds himself, which was widely seen as accumulating too much power.
While Conte enjoyed support during the first phase of the pandemic, which hit Italy hard, he has come under criticism for making decisions and policy without consulting parliament, something he has made some effort to amend.
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