Italian Prime Minister, Mario Draghi didn’t have to step down even though two key parties in his coalition withheld their backing in this week’s confidence vote.
He argued with former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi in a new interview, refusing to take any blame.
“It’s not our fault, what happened. Not at all,’’ Berlusconi told the Corriere Della Sera, in comments published on Friday.
Draghi announced his resignation on Thursday, the second resignation he had submitted in a week after Berlusconi’s centre-right Forza Italia and the far-right League party refused to vote in a confidence vote.
That was a reaction to a decision by another coalition member the populist Five Star Movement (M5S) withheld its vote from legislation last week, because it thought that Draghi’s wide-ranging coalition was being too critical of Russia.
Though Russia was now five months into an invasion of Ukraine, M5S also opted not to vote this week.
Draghi had said he was prepared to stay on, but only if he had the support of all coalition members.
However, in the interview, Berlusconi pointed out that his party had not voted against Draghi, but had simply chosen not to vote at all.
Berlusconi said he had offered Draghi another option that would have precluded his resignation.
“We even told him on Thursday afternoon that we are ready to open a new debate in the Chamber of Deputies to discuss what we can do.’’
But he said Draghi couldn’t be talked into the new plan.
“And you know why? Because he found it, so to say, unfortunate,’’ said Berlusconi, noting that Draghi used the incident to take his leave.
New elections had now been set for Sept. 25, casting Italy into a political crisis amid fears that conservative, eurosceptic parties could perform well this time. (dpa/NAN)
