Italian PM Draghi wins vote but unity coalition unravels

Italian Premier Mario Draghi has won a confidence vote in the Senate, but boycotts by three of his key coalition allies in the voting have virtually doomed his unity government’s prospects of survival

Italian Premier Mario Draghi won a confidence vote Wednesday in the Senate, but it was a hollow victory after three of his key coalition allies boycotted the voting, virtually dooming any prospects for his unity government's survival.

The vote Wednesday went 95-38 in the favor of Mr. Draghi’s government in the 315-member Senate, after lawmakers deserted the roll call in droves.

“In these days of folly, Parliament decides to go against Italy,’’ tweeted Enrico Letta, a former premier who leads the Democratic Party, the only large party in the ruling coalition to back Mr. Draghi in the confidence vote. “Italians will show themselves at the ballot box to be wiser than their representatives.”

The rapid unraveling of Mr. Draghi's 17-month-old coalition could prompt President Sergio Mattarella to dissolve Parliament, opening the path to holding an early election as soon as late September. .

Coalition turmoil prompted Mr. Draghi last week to offer his resignation, but Mr. Mattarella rejected the bid and asked the premier to take his case to Parliament. After hours of debate Wednesday on his fate, Mr. Draghi asked the Senate to vote on a confidence measure calling on him to keep on governing. But his national unity government's staying power dramatically fell apart.

Just before the vote, representatives of the populist 5-Star Movement, the conservative forces of former Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s center-right Forza Italia party and right-wing senators from Matteo Salvini’s League party announced they would skip the roll call.

The coalition's implosion came despite an unprecedented outpouring of sentiment by ordinary Italians in the last few days appealing for Mr. Draghi to keep on governing, amid soaring inflation, high energy costs and a surge in pandemic infections.