Former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi pulled his support for the current ruling coalition in Italy, plunging that government into chaos. The power play has forced current Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte to scramble to find a new coalition in order to remain in power.
At issue is authority over a massive 222 billion Euro ($268 billion) Covid19 bailout fund from the European Union. Both Conte and Renzi want final say in how the funds are managed.
Critics say the monies amount to a slush fund that will be used to buy support from political figures and patronage from establishment figures.
Conte, chastened politically, but remaining in power may be the most likely outcome of the crisis as the establishment wants to avoid snap elections at all costs. Many believe elections held today would result in the country’s populist parties gaining infinitely more power.
Anti-globalist political parties such as Matteo Salvini’s Lega and the Brothers of Italy are currently polling first and third in the nation in terms of popularity – 24% and 16% respectively. By contrast, Renzi’s Italia Viva party is at 3%.
Matteo Salvini is seen as Italy’s Donald Trump.
“What we are unwilling to do is forge an alliance with a populist, anti-European right-wing government,” former minister for family and equal opportunities Elena Bonetti told CNBC. “We believe that we must place the future prospects of Italy firmly within a European context. So, there will be no populist or anti-European choices made,” she added.
In addition to the recover package, Renzi wants to borrow heavily from the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) – an additional bailout fund set up by the European Union that offers up to 36 billion euros in cheap loans for countries looking to bolster their health systems.
Borrowing from the funds would further lock Italy into the EU and the globalist agenda. Conte has so far been resistant to the idea.
Renzi’s current political play has left the Italian public angry and perplexed.
“We’re in the middle of a pandemic. Now is not the time to be adding to problems,” Carlo Gerardi, a manager of a hospitality company, says. “This will block everything – so many businesses are struggling without financial support and people are losing their salaries.”
A recent poll reveals 73% of Italians say said it is not the time for a political crisis and believe Renzi is pursuing his own interests.
Renzi is currently the focus of accusations of being at the center of efforts to unravel the Trump presidency – first through SpyGate, then through interference in the 2020 election. Those plans, some say, were crafted in the waning days of the Obama presidency in late 2016/early 2017.
In May 2017, Obama met privately with Renzi while visiting Italy for a climate conference. It was only days later that Robert Mueller was appointed special counsel to investigation collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and the Russian government.
In March 2019 Renzi said he was a “lucky man” for having worked with Barack Obama and not Donald Trump. It was a week after that the Mueller report was released. Grounds for President Trump’s (first) impeachment would be laid months after that, in the summer of 2019.