Italy Has Problems That Money Can't Solve
The country’s politicians can avoid tackling their own shortcomings as long as European support keeps flowing in.
Standing by Rome.
Photographer: Filippo Monteforte/AFP via Getty Images
For the past year and a half, European Union leaders must have hoped that Italy’s political troubles were only a distant memory. The ongoing showdown between Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and former premier Matteo Renzi shows that the lack of a stable and effective government in Rome remains one of Europe’s biggest challenges.
Conte only managed to scrape through a vote of confidence in Italy’s Senate on Tuesday evening, after Renzi chose to withdraw his ministers from the cabinet: He secured the support of 156 senators, less than an outright majority of 161 votes, while 140 rejected him. The prime minister — who on Monday had secured a slim outright majority in the country’s lower house — can remain in power according to Italy’s constitution. However, Conte now faces the prospect of becoming a lame duck as he tries to to cobble together a new governing coalition to help him pass his agenda amid the daily difficulties of parliamentary life.