By Silvia Marchetti
ROME (MaceNews) – Italy’s 5 Stars Movement will likely postpone a key online vote on whether to back Mario Draghi’s new government until there are more details of a shared ruling program among political parties, according to sources.
The online voting, initially scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, could be delayed until after the final meeting between Draghi and head of state Sergio Mattarella when the former European Central Bank chief will be reporting back to Mattarella on whether he fully accepts the mandate to form a new cabinet.
The likely delay in the voting operations, set to take place on the 5 Stars Movement platform and reserved to a restricted number of supporters, is bound to increase the immediate chances of success and formal appointment of Draghi as Italy’s next premier. The former ECB chief is currently involved in a second round of talks with political parties, trade unions and industrial lobbies and is expected to meet up with Mattarella no sooner than Thursday.
According to 5 Stars sources, the decision for delay was taken after the movement had a second meeting with Draghi on Tuesday afternoon and has the goal to buy more time in negotiations over a shared ruling program. It would make more sense to hold the online voting once details of Draghi’s program are known, said the sources, rather than holding it now and downgrading it to a mere ‘yes’ or ‘no’ vote over Draghi’s appointment before properly vetting his program, with the risk of incurring a high rate of abstentions.
The movement’s founder, Beppe Grillo, a comic who does not sit in parliament, has asked his supporters to be patient and wait for concrete results by giving Draghi a chance to show what he can do, said the sources. The 5 stars have long been facing an internal crisis which risks splitting them apart. In recent days other external members of the party have called for an abstention in the Draghi online voting.
The former ECB chief is attempting to define a potential technocrat-political cabinet team and a comprehensive agenda that may satisfy different policy requests coming from a large majority willing to support him, including the opposition League party.
The 5 Stars have softened their initial ‘no-Draghi’ stance and are now available in discussing alliances with Draghi alongside a common strategy to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic and secure some EUR200 billion in direct European aid.