Rome: Italy’s 5-Star Movement said Thursday that 15 of its senators will be expelled from the party after they voted “no” in a confidence vote for Premier Mario Draghi’s newly formed government.
The expulsions illustrated how Draghi’s appointment has badly split the 5-Star Movement, which was created as a grass-roots, anti-establishment protest force opposed to the pro-European banking establishment that the new premier represents to many members. Draghi, 73, is a former president of the European Central Bank and served as the Bank of Italy’s governor.
The movement, the biggest vote-getter in Italy’s 2018 general election, nevertheless decided to back Draghi out of a sense of national responsibility, given the crisis posed by the coronavirus pandemic and resulting economic devastation.
More 5-Star lawmakers faced a similar fate after the lower Chamber of Deputies followed the Senate and voted overwhelmingly late Thursday to back Draghi’s Cabinet, voting 535-56 with five abstentions.
Read:| Italy’s Draghi easily wins Senate backing for unity govt
According to 5-Star Movement regulations, lawmakers can be expelled if they vote contrary to the positions of the party’s registered members, who are given a say on individual proposals via an online platform that is the hallmark of the 5-Stars’ brand of “direct democracy.”
In a membership vote last week, 59% of 5-Stars supported Draghi, swayed in part by his plans to emphasize environmentally sustainable growth policies.
President Sergio Mattarella asked Draghi, 73, to form a government after a small party yanked its support from the 5-Star-led government headed by now-former Premier Giuseppe Conte.
Initially, the 5-Stars refused to back Draghi, enraged that a power play had toppled Conte, plunged the country into a government crisis and resulted in a technocrat being appointed premier outside of the normal election process.
Draghi put together a broad-based government of unity that has ministers from the 5-Stars, centre-right and left parties, as well as technocrats leading key ministries.
His government easily won its first confidence vote late Wednesday, when senators voted 262-40 with two abstentions in favour of his Cabinet. Joining the 15 5-Star defectors in both houses of Parliament were members of the right-wing Brothers of Italy party.
AP
