Rome – Like the coronavirus pandemic the death toll rises worldwide, the Italian government is the latest victim. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte resigned, sparking a political crisis while the country is in deep trouble from its COVID-19 epidemic.
Conte’s center – left coalition government began to falter last week when former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi withdrew the support of his splinter party, denying Conte an absolute governing majority. Renzi chastised Conte for his handling of the health crisis and the economic recovery plan.
Last spring, Italy was at the center of the global pandemic, and it became the first country to impose a national lockdown in an effort to contain the virus – despite the crippling blow to the economy.
The attempt was successful because the infestation and mortality rate decreased significantly during the summer. But last fall, after the government eased restrictions on closure purposes, cases and death rates began to rise, and the second wave was even worse as the first.
The death toll currently stands at more than 85,000 people. In a country of 60 million, this is the fifth highest COVID-19 death rate, per capita, in the world.
Given the early onset of the virus in Italy, the economy has been struggling with the effects of the pandemic for longer than most other countries. It is the biggest beneficiary of a European Union investment plan for economic recovery from the coronavirus, and Rome will receive around $ 243 billion in EU funding.
Prime Minister Conte fought with Renzi’s party, his smaller ally of the coalition, over how to spend the EU recovery funds, and Renzi withdrew from the coalition.
Massimo Di Vita / Archive Massimo Di Vita / Mondadori Portfolio / Getty
But despite alleged shortcomings of Conte’s government, polls show Italians largely approve of its leadership and upset the app card at such a critical time in the country’s history, when hundreds of Italians die daily, bankruptcy cases stand and vaccinations take longer than expected.
Conte may not be gone forever. He is expected to join a new, broader coalition of lawmakers to fill the void left by Renzi’s party.
For a political newcomer, Conte has shown incredible survival skills. Few Italians heard of the obscure law professor when he was appointed in 2018 to lead a coalition between Italy’s two largest populist parties, the 5-star movement and the anti-migrant party.
In 2019, the league withdrew its support and tried to enforce elections. But Conte entered into a new alliance and brought Renzi’s center-left Democratic Party on board.
Notoriously unstable, Italy has had 66 different governments since World War II.