he must reveal his letters and clarify if he continues as prime minister

The Italian Prime Minister, mario draghiwill reveal this Wednesday in Parliament if he maintains his resignation after the crisis in his coalition, while the parties will have to decide if they continue to support him or if they choose to lead the country to the polls in the midst of a climate of economic and social discontent.

Draghi will give a speech in the Senate at 9.30 and the discussion and vote on the motion of confidence will arrive late in the afternoon, so the passage in the Chamber of Deputies will probably have to wait until Thursday.

Italian politics lived this Tuesday a kind of day of reflection before what is coming in Parliament, where Draghi will clarify the unknown that brings the country upside down these days: whether to resign or not.

The national unity coalition that he has chaired since February 2021 entered into crisis last Thursday when one of its members, the 5 Star Movement (M5S), distanced itself from the rest and decided not to vote on a confidence motion linked to an economic decree.

Then, the prime minister presented his resignation to the head of state, Sergio Mattarellaalleging that he had accepted to govern with the support of all, but the president rejected it summoning him to solve the crisis before the Legislative.

[Más Draghi o elecciones anticipadas: los escenarios que se abren en Italia con la crisis de Gobierno]

Since then, Draghi has taken refuge in his home in Città della Pieve, a peaceful village in mountainous Umbria; then he traveled to Algeria to ask for more gas and this Tuesday he kept his usual silence, only broken by the commemoration of the murder of anti-mafia judge Paolo Borsellino.

However, two important meetings took place in the capital, beginning with the one he held at the Quirinale Palace with Mattarella, to talk about the new agreements with Algiers, key in his plans to end dependence on Russian gas.

But he also received at the Chigi Palace, seat of the Government’s presidency, the leader of the progressive Democratic Party (PD), Enrico Lettaone of those who put the most pressure to convince him to continue.

Italy clothes Draghi

And it is that the former president of the European Central Bank has received thousands of requests in the last few hours so that he does not resign and ends the legislature in its natural term, March 2023, given the enormous challenges that the country faces.

[Draghi tras hablar con Putin: “Viene una crisis alimentaria de proporciones gigantescas”]

The priorities, argue their supporters, are complete the reform program that will unlock new funds from the European Recovery Plan at the end of the yearcreate the new Budgets and take measures against a historic recession, unprecedented since 1986.

Some 1,600 mayors from all over the country and all political stripes signed a petition to that effect, and support also came from the powerful Church, unions and employers, and associations of all kinds, from rectors, doctors or industrialists.

The economist who became prime minister also has the support of Europe: the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, wrote in the newspaper Political that the continent “needs leaders like him” and was also surreptitiously praised by the European Commission.

A political mess

Meanwhile, at the national level, the parties continue to hold internal meetings to agree on a line for accountability.

The coalition, supported by the entire hemicycle except for the far-right Brothers of Italy, is divided between a left prone to dialogue with the M5S and a right that does not even want to hear of governing again with that populist formation.

In the conservative bloc, Silvio Berlusconi and Matteo Salvini are willing to renew their support for the economist but only if you exclude the M5S.

[“Gracias, Antonio”: el cambio de nombre de Draghi a Pedro Sánchez más hilarante]

Otherwise, “they are prepared” for an electoral advance and vote, some Budgets for 2023, even if they are provisional. Draghi’s right-wing allies added another piece to the discord by lamenting that he received Letta and not them.

For its part, the Five Starthe trigger for all this torrid crisis in the hottest week of the year, after hours and hours of angry meetings he has not even agreed if he will continue to support the prime minister or it will give you the final slam.

Its leader, Giuseppe Conte, has assured that “now the decision is not up to the M5S but to Draghi”. In other words, if he wants them back, he must accept a series of demands that were put into the decree that caused the schism.

Who does not tire of demanding elections is the head of the Brothers of Italy, Giorgia Melonito date alone in the opposition and already launched by the good forecasts given by all the polls, many of which place it as the first force in the country.

But the last word will be Mattarella, who last January reluctantly agreed to remain at the head of the highest institution of the State. If Draghi resigns, it will be him who decides whether or not he considers the legislature settled, and the steps to follow.