Italian premier Draghi says he’ll resign, as government faces collapse

 For the past 17 months, Prime Minister Mario Draghi has served as a rare unifying force in Italy’s politics. But that period came crashing to an end Thursday, with Draghi saying he would resign after a fracture in his unity government.

“The pact of trust that this government’s actions have been founded on came undone,” Draghi’s office said in a statement. 

The statement said that the conditions to carry out the government’s priorities “no longer exist.”

The rapid downfall was triggered by a move earlier in the day, when senators from one of the biggest parties in Draghi’s coalition — the Five Star Movement — abstained from a confidence motion.

The Five Stars — a onetime populist party that has hemorrhaged most of its support — opted for the boycott ostensibly because of grievances with Draghi and over a bill linked to the confidence vote.

The Five Stars — a onetime populist party that has hemorrhaged most of its support — opted for the boycott ostensibly because of grievances with Draghi and over a bill linked to the confidence vote.

 The bill, aimed at helping businesses and households with high energy prices, also contained a provision for a trash incinerator in Rome, a project the Five Stars oppose on environmental grounds.

Draghi had made it clear that he would interpret a walkout as a vote against the unity government he leads and that he would feel obliged to reconsider his mandate and potentially tender his resignation. The Five Stars went ahead, anyway.

As a result, at a time of inflation, record-breaking drought and war in Europe, Italy’s government has broken apart over a garbage incinerator.

“Absurd,” said Roberto D’Alimonte, a political science professor at Luiss Guido Carli University.

What comes next requires some guesswork. Draghi on Thursday afternoon met with Italian President Sergio Mattarella, who could persuade Draghi and the parties to patch things back together with yet another confidence vote — this one tied solely to the existence of the government, unrelated to any bill.