Government, crisis in the dark. Prime Minister Conte does not rule out the count in the Chamber

• The reactions of the majority: a serious mistake, an incomprehensible choice

• Renzi: the ministers Bellanova and Bonetti and the undersecretary Scalfarotto resigned

• The reactions of the opposition: the government is no more, let's go to the vote

• Crisis diary

• Palazzo Chigi: if Italia viva leaves, it does not return.

  Renzi: tomorrow we decide what to do

• Prime Minister Conte al Quirinale, Mattarella: "Get out of uncertainty soon"

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by Tullia Fabiani

January 14, 2021 The negotiations of a convulsive and tense day, like yesterday's, were not enough, nor the work of the bridges.

And the attempt to mend the tear was not enough, trashing the tissue paper out of Palazzo Chigi that denied any possibility to a new government with Matteo Renzi, and instead re-launching "a legislative pact".

The Conte bis government comes to an end.

Renzi announces the resignation from the government of the ministers of living Italy, Bellanova and Bonetti, and of the undersecretary Scalfarotto.

The crisis, in the dark, has yet to be officially formalized, but the unknown outlets it may have worried the country and above all the President of the Republic, who asked the premier, and the government majority, for "a quick solution".

In the evening, opening the Council of Ministers, the premier announces that he has informed the Quirinale and accepted the step backwards of Teresa Bellanova and Elena Bonetti.

Tense, he speaks of "grave responsibility" and "considerable damage to the country" produced by a gesture that cannot be diminished.

He says he sought dialogue "up to the last minute" but the land was "strewn with mines".

He does not hide the irritation, nor the willingness to go all the way, with the count in the Chamber. So in the first Council of Ministers without IV, he does not give any sign of turning around, now treating Renzi as an opponent.

The strategy would be to stall, not to resign today, but to take over the interim of the vacant ministries, Agriculture and Family, for the time necessary to approve "fundamental measures".

Only later, when he has the certainty of the numbers, will he go to the public showdown.

In the meantime, Conte calls his team to witness and the tweets from the ministers M5s, Pd and Leu arrive in unison.

"#AvanticonConte" is the hashtag.

Nicola Zingaretti also tweets it from the Pd: "Now everything is at risk, it's an incomprehensible choice", is his attack on Renzi.

Twenty-four hours to settle the slap immediately, and to allow the majority parties to think about what to do.

And then eventually present himself to the Chambers with a speech that makes a broad appeal to responsibility.

Today the Pd and M5s will gather their leaders to evaluate the crisis, aware that in the majority there are those who, like a part of the Dems, still have doubts about the hypothesis of replacing Iv with a group of "leaders".

The Movement seems more compact than ever on the "people's advocate".

And even those who, in theory, would have opened a solution with a premier Dem (the name of Dario Franceschini has been circulating) seems to have retraced his steps.

To tell the truth, the hypothesis of a government with the same majority and a different premier has not yet completely faded away - with Iv waiting - but, for now, it seems really far away. 

Towards the count in the Hall

Meanwhile, Iv lives the hours of the post-tear with caution.

No internal revolt is recorded in the evening meeting of parliamentarians with Renzi.

The premier's move is awaited, but the scenario of a rapid solution to the crisis in the majority is discussed as if the Count ter was not yet an option closed: sitting at a table would be possible.

But the conviction of more than one is that we go towards the count in the Chamber. And, if that day ever comes, some goodbyes among the Renzians cannot be excluded.

A decision on how to deal with the crisis opened by Iv Conte - whether to resign to open the attempt of a new government or to go to Parliament to verify its majority - must be put on the table already in the next few hours, also because President Mattarella himself has invited to a solution of the crisis in a short time.

If he really does choose the showdown in Parliament, the goal could be to get a yes from a large and solid majority, with a broad appeal to support the work of the government.

The only alternative to the responsible card could be Renzi's sudden opening to dialogue, with Conte premier as a fixed point.

Remote possibility but not yet impossible.

Then other scenarios open up: from that of the government of national unity, led by a high profile figure (and in this case the names of Draghi and Cartabia resonate) or the impossibility of finding any majority in support of even such a government. and the road, at that inevitable point, of early voting.

Bonetti: "My resignation is the space to open the table"

"My resignation is the space for this table to redesign the country, always postponed, finally opening. It can no longer be postponed, precisely because we are in crisis, we must act, the theme is not the Count but the political response ".

The resigning minister for Equal Opportunities and the Elena Bonetti Family said on Radio 24. "The majority is there when they support a government project. We decided to go out and resign in an unprecedented way, because few leave their seats , to rebuild a government project for the country that is useful and achievable ".

Amendola: "Crisis in the dark, uncertain scenarios. Pd united around Conte"

"A crisis in the dark, with uncertain scenarios and outcomes".

For this "nothing is to be excluded", including elections.

The Minister for European Policies, Enzo Amendola, said this to the microphones of Radio 24 Il Sole 24 ore.

"The outcomes are uncertain - he continued - because it is obvious that a government must have a solid majority in Parliament, that the political forces that express a prime minister must work head on for part of the emergencies that the country is experiencing. ".

Then he added: "The only reality now is that there is unity around President Giuseppe Conte and on this we intend to move forward", he said, answering the question about possible support from the Democratic Party to a government with a chairman of the board other than Conte should the outcome of the crisis come to this.

"The party secretary said so, all the authoritative exponents said so, we will discuss it again this morning - the minister continued -. What we want to do is give security to the country in a phase that is quite critical for the effects. still Covid ".

Grillo posts photos with the premier on Facebook and writes "#ConTe"

Beppe Grillo reiterates in the clearest way his support for Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, and he does so on Facebook, posting a photo of him together with the Prime Minister.

Playing on the surname, which lends itself to a certificate of solidarity, Grillo uses the hashtag and writes "#ConTe".

Fdi, Chamber Chamber works stop, Conte reports

"Conte report to Parliament today on what is happening in the majority".

The Fdi group leader Francesco Lollobrigida asked this in the Chamber. "We have not yet understood why he has not yet resigned. Fico immediately convene the conference of the group leaders because the work of this classroom cannot continue in this condition", he concluded.

Bonomi: "Enough personalisms, executive listen to us"

Now that the government crisis is open, Carlo Bonomi, president of Confindustria in an interview with Corriere della Sera, suggests to politics to get out of the cage of personalism, "it is the real emergency" , you have to "face reality".

In the government "we have good relations with individual ministers" but "this has been a very closed government - he explains - it has never given us any answers: zero on the Italy 2030 plan that we brought to the States General, zero on the 2030-2050 plan that we had presented to the general assembly ".

Now "I hope that there will be a government willing to listen to those who have demonstrated the ability to make the country grow".

For example, "we are willing to question tax cuts. But to generate resources for competitiveness. Not to seek electoral dividends by increasing current spending".

The industrialists are very critical of the Recovery Plan: "It has been approved without debate or confrontation. They never questioned us."

As for the substance, "I have not found a vision. There is no sense of which country we want to build".

In the management of the pandemic "it is understandable that at the beginning the system was taken by surprise, but in the following eight months there were many management and implementation errors - he stresses -. The health structure showed many deficiencies, therefore the Mes it must be taken. We must support research, the pharmaceutical sector, the biomedical sector ".