Mr. Salvini and other right-wing popular leaders argued that the death of Mr. Conte and the lack of a broad political consensus should lead to new and early elections, which polls are likely to win.
But while Mr. Salvini maintained his narrow call for early elections, the country’s most politically minded populist was also careful not to be too critical of Mr. He said his party, the League, would make proposals on Mr. Draghi’s ultimate agenda, which he said ‘should be filled with content, things to do’.
The decision of mr. Mattarella about mr. Calling Draghi followed a meeting Tuesday night with House Speaker Roberto Fico, who last week had the task of determining whether Italy’s bickering government could overcome a wide range of political differences that led to the collapse last month of mr. Conte’s 17 month old government.
Mr. Fico let the president of Italy know on Tuesday night that he had failed.
Mr. Conte also failed in weeks of desperate attempts to muster enough support from a loose range of legislators to stay in power.
On Tuesday night, it looked like Mr. Conte, who picked Five Star out of the darkness just two years ago to lead the country, fades.
“Above and beyond all the arguments, of who won and lost, the crux of the situation is that in the most difficult and dramatic situation we can imagine, we move from the hands of Conte to that of Draghi,” Mario Calabresi, who wrote two of Italy’s leading articles on Twitter. “I’m going to sleep well. You? ‘
Elisabetta Povoledo, Gaia Pianigiani and Emma Bubola reported.