Another hot summer in Italy, another government crisis at the wrong time – three years ago, in the holiday month of August, the coalition broke up for the first time after the parliamentary elections in March 2018.

In July 2022, what is now the third government since the previous elections collapses.

In the vote of confidence in the smaller parliamentary chamber on Thursday afternoon, 172 of a total of 321 senators voted in favor of former ECB President Mario Draghi and his cabinet;

39 senators voted no.

Before that, however, the faction of the left-wing populist Five Star Movement had withdrawn from the Senate and had thus effectively withdrawn its own head of government.

Matthias Rub

Political correspondent for Italy, the Vatican, Albania and Malta based in Rome.

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Such a “half” victory in the confidence vote was not enough for Draghi.

He moved in with President Sergio Mattarella in the Quirinale Palace;

he then convened the Council of Ministers.

After the end of the cabinet meeting, Draghi then announced his resignation.

However, Mattarella could now commission him again to form a government in order to continue official business until the end of the legislative period in spring 2023 - if Draghi were willing to do so.

Or the President can set up an interim government, perhaps led by the current President of the Constitutional Court, Giuliano Amato, as has been speculated in Rome.

Early elections in the fall with the subsequent formation of a new coalition are also possible.

Draghi didn't want to be blackmailed

The most recent crisis began immediately with the collapse of the left-wing populist Five Star Movement in June.

The moderate wing around former party leader and acting foreign minister Luigi Di Maio split from the “orthodox” core of the movement around current party leader Giuseppe Conte.

The dispute was essentially about the Italian position in the war in Ukraine.

While Di Maio stood firmly with Draghi, who in turn had stood firmly with Kiev since the war began on February 24, a majority of parliamentarians and apparently members of the movement were opposed to further Italian arms sales to Ukraine.

There was also a demand from the right-wing national Lega, led by former Interior Minister Matteo Salvini,

Before the Senate vote, Five-Star boss Conte had called for the government to do more to tackle growing social problems, giving more generous grants to needy families and small businesses.

They are ready for a constructive dialogue, but will "not issue a blank check," Conte had warned.

For his part, Draghi had signaled a willingness to engage in dialogue after talks with union representatives on Wednesday, but at the same time let it be known that he would not allow himself to be blackmailed: "A government that is faced with an ultimatum cannot work and makes no sense."

In the Chamber of Deputies, the Five Stars abstained from voting on the bill in the Chamber of Deputies on Monday, but still supported the government in the previously asked vote of confidence.

The last-minute mediation attempt to decouple the vote on the draft law from that on the vote of confidence in the Senate vote failed on Thursday afternoon.

To the end, Draghi refused to continue his government without the support of the Five Stars.

Lega boss Salvini had already announced before the vote in the Senate that his party would no longer support Draghi if the Five Stars actually left the coalition.

Early parliamentary elections are the best solution.

Social Democrat circles, Draghi's most reliable partner in his broad and extremely heterogeneous coalition, had also said that a continuation of the coalition without the Five Star Movement was unthinkable.

The ending will rankle Draghi

The post-fascist party "Brothers of Italy" under Giorgia Meloni, the only opposition force of any noteworthy size and the party with the highest approval ratings in recent polls, has been calling for new elections for months because the coalition has not been able to agree on a common policy for a long time and Draghi is recognizable exhausted its political capital.

The end will rankle for the economists Draghi.

His coalition fell because of the dispute over a decree law to cushion the consequences of the Ukraine war with a volume of 23 billion euros, while 200 billion euros from EU funds will soon flow to Italy to overcome the consequences of the pandemic.

Meanwhile, Russia wages a merciless war in Ukraine;

Italy and all of Europe are experiencing a historic energy crisis;

the Eurozone is dealing with the worst inflation in its history;

the country's entrepreneurs are grappling with supply shortages and farmers with the worst drought in 70 years;

the summer wave of corona infections is piling up.

Maria Domenica Castellone of the Five Star Movement justified her group's withdrawal from the Senate before the roll-call vote on the vote of confidence with the following words: "We must defend our dignity."