ROME – Italy’s history of political instability resurfaced in particularly volatile times on Wednesday, as a government crisis began amid a pandemic that devastated the country, casting doubt on the competence of its leadership and the political field battles intensified.
The government, a shaky coalition coalition between increasingly unpopular populists and the center-left institution, has apparently come to implosion amid long-simmering power struggles, revenge plots and ideological disputes over EU rescue funds.
Italy now finds itself in a known period of political uncertainty, but much more dangerous given the pandemic.
The crisis was caused by the withdrawal of government ministers by a former prime minister, Matteo Renzi, who controls a small but critical support in the ruling majority. His gambit, which nervous political leaders tried to avoid this week, is forcing his rival, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, into a difficult position.
The opening of a government crisis comes as Italy, the first European country to be hit hard by the virus and devastated by one of the worst, launches a vaccination program on which the country’s hope rests.
Italian voters, who largely do not understand or care about the strife and strife between political leaders, are concerned that it could hamper the breakdown of Italy’s viral response and delay its return to a semblance of normalcy.
At a news conference on Wednesday night, Mr. Renzi, a politician in the center, officially announced the resignation of two of his ministers. He did not rule out joining another government led by Mr. Conte did not join, but said the prime minister had forced his hand by using the pandemic as a pretext to circumvent democratic institutions.
“Precisely because there is the pandemic, it is necessary to respect the rules of democracy,” he said.
Mr. Renzi has uttered a tacit complaint among many people in the Democratic Party, which he led earlier, saying the more populist members of the government focus more on receiving preferences on social media than on seriously ruling. He said that Mr. Conte’s government has failed to promote infrastructure projects, to invest in jobs for the youth of Italy and to adequately condemn supporters of President Trump who stormed the US Capitol building a week ago.
The most important, he said, ideological populists in the government of Mr. Conte has refused to save billions of euros from the European Union for their health care system.
The reaction to the interruption of Mr. Renzi was swift and negative from across the Italian political landscape, with leaders lamenting the move by Mr. Renzi was unreasonable, politically motivated and drove the country into the abyss.
“A serious mistake made by some who will pay us all,” said Andrea Orlando, a former ally of Mr. Renzi in the Democratic Party, written about Twitter.
Mr. Conte’s administration can succeed in retaining a parliamentary majority, possibly through a realignment of the current cabinet. But it gets harder without the approval of Mr. Renzi.
Mr. Conte can also only resign, causing the collapse of the government amid the worst national crisis Italy has experienced since World War II. The president of Italy can then ask someone with enough support, maybe even mr. Conte, to build another government that will get parliamentary approval.
But if a new and lasting coalition cannot be found, the political crisis could eventually lead to new elections in potentially dangerous circumstances, breaking the door for the return of nationalist forces.
Critics of Mr. Renzi, who is plentiful, sees a vengeful and ambitious politician who now only has the power to destroy, but could not resist using it.
Mr. Renzi, a capable political operator of the center-left institution, effectively ousted nationalist leader Matteo Salvini in 2019. After Salvini overpowered himself in a power grab from a ruling coalition, Mr. Renzi seized the moment and took great pride in creating an unlikely alliance between the Democratic Party he had previously led and the populist Five Star Movement, which had been spreading insults and disinformation about him for years and which had knocked him out of power. That agreement has new elections that Mr. Salvini would win, prevent and keep him at a distance.
Mr. Renzi immediately left the Democratic Party and formed a small party, Italia Viva, which could get no real traction. But it has enough MPs to be decisive for the survival of the government consisting of Five Star and the Democratic Party.
Tension between mr. Conte and mr. Renzi broke into the public in December when Mr. Conte has announced the creation of another task force to decide how to spend the more than 200 billion euros – about $ 243 billion – of the European Union Recovery Fund.
Mr. Renzi also demands that the government accept a separate amount of 36 billion euros – about $ 44 billion – made available by the European Union and earmarked for Italy’s health system. Five Star, which came to power to express anger against the establishment of Brussels, rejected the source of this funding, called the European Stability Mechanism, as an anatomy of its populist roots.
Mr. Conte and mr. Renzi played a game of chicken for weeks. Mr. Renzi’s popular support that has already scraped in the basement has reduced the disadvantage of doing something unpopular. Nothing to lose, got him more leverage in his face with mr. Conte, who is in fact a lot of mr. Renzi’s claims repelled.
But the prime minister remained adamant about his refusal to take the European stability mechanism money.
In the run-up to the jump of mr. Renzi, Mr. Salvini, the populist leader, saved for the prospect of another chance for power.
“Better an election or a center-right government rather than this strife,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a rally in Rome.
On Wednesday evening, Mr. Renzi said he opposes the possibility of new elections. To prevent this from happening, he can extend his support to Mr. Conte throws, but in a crisis, things are unpredictable and can get out of hand. For this reason, members of the government tried to persuade Mr. Pull Renzi back from the edge.
The toughest members of Five Star ruled out that he would ever meet Mr. Renzi’s party would work if he caused the government’s collapse.
It is unclear where Mr. Renzi or Italy leaves.
Some of Italy’s leading virologists have been clearly disgusted by the political distraction in an emergency for health.
“The orchestra plays while the Titanic sinks,” Massimo Galli, director of the infectious diseases department at Luigi Sacco Hospital in Milan, told Italian television. “There is a chance we will have hospitals in serious trouble again next week.”