ITALY’S PRIME MINISTER Giuseppe Conte has resigned in an escalation of the political instability that has enveloped the country as it battles both the COVID-19 pandemic and a brutal recession.
On Tuesday morning Mr Conte held a cabinet meeting to inform his ministers of his decision and then met President Sergio Mattarella, to hand in his resignation.
Mr Conte’s decision is a political gamble that he can stay in office by cobbling together a new ruling coalition after his government was stripped of its majority by the resignation of former prime minister Matteo Renzi’s small Italia Viva party in protest against its handling of the pandemic response.
There is however no guarantee of his success, and the move creates political uncertainty at a time when the country has suffered over 85,000 deaths from the coronavirus pandemic and is facing the worst economic crisis since the Second World War.
The political
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