Europe 1 with AFP 8:11 p.m., July 20, 2022

After presenting his resignation from the post of Prime Minister to President Mattarella, who also refused it, Mario Draghi said he was ready to stay.

But the parties of his coalition announced on Wednesday that they would not participate in the vote of confidence requested by the Prime Minister in the Senate.

His resignation seems inevitable.

Three parties belonging to Mario Draghi's coalition have announced their non-participation in a vote of confidence requested by the Prime Minister on Wednesday in the Italian Senate, effectively leading to the end of his government of national unity.

Mario Draghi thus finds himself deprived of the support of three important members of his coalition: Forza Italia, the right-wing party led by former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, the League, the far-right party of populist tribune Matteo Salvini, and the populist formation Mouvement 5 Étoiles (M5S).

The coalition gone up in smoke

These mass desertions should logically lead to the resignation of Mario Draghi, who has repeatedly affirmed that he would only remain in his post if he retained broad support, which is no longer the case today.

At the end of a debate full of twists and turns in the Upper House, Mario Draghi expressed his frustration with the parties, some of which in turn expressed their dissatisfaction at not seeing their points of view taken into account.

The coalition supporting Draghi so far, which went from the left to the extreme right, thus went up in smoke.

"With bitterness but with a clear conscience, we will not participate in the vote," said Anna Maria Bernini, president of the Forza Italia group.

The party had presented its own motion in the Senate, proposing to renew Draghi but without the 5 Stars, but Draghi had only called for a vote on the motion of another senator proposing the pure and simple renewal of the outgoing government.

The League and the M5S followed the same line as Forza Italia.

On the center-left, on the other hand, the Democratic Party and Italia Viva have announced that they will vote for confidence, as well as Together for the Future, the neo-party of the head of diplomacy, Luigi Di Maio, who, with around fifty parliamentarians, left the M5S at the end of June.