Premier Mario Draghi reportedly
confirmed to President Sergio Mattarella his commitment to
moving forward with the government in talks at the presidential
palace Thursday, while ex-premier Giuseppe Conte reportedly told
Mattarella Wednesday that his 5-Star Movement /M5S) would not
exit the government to give only an external backing for it,
sources said Thursday.
Conte complained that he had heard that Draghi allegedly asked
M5S founder and stand-up comic Beppe Grillo to oust the former
premier from the movement, which Draghi denied saying he would
clear the matter up with his predecessor as PM.
Many M5S members reportedly exerted increasing pressure on Conte
Thursday to pull out of the national unity coalition and instead
lend external support.
Draghi met President Sergio Mattarella on Thursday officially to
report to the head of state on the situation regarding Italy's
international commitments, sources said, but the alleged Conte
case loomed large in the background.
This week Draghi took part in G7 and NATO summits.
The meeting between the PM and the president took place at a
delicate time for Draghi's executive.
Draghi returned to Rome from the NATO summit in Madrid early on
Wednesday amid soaring tension with his predecessor Conte, the
leader of the 5-Star Movement (M5S), a key part of the ruling
coalition.
Conte reacted with fury at reports that Draghi had contacted M5S
founder Beppe Grillo to have him removed from the helm of the
movement.
The premier's office denied that Draghi had sought to have Conte
ousted and said the reason for his early return from Madrid was
in order to prepare for a cabinet meeting on Thursday with more
measures to curtail sharp rises in energy bills.
Conte had talks on Wednesday with Mattarella about the issue.
Friction with the ruling coalition was already high after
Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio recently quit the M5S to form his
own group after a big row with Conte over military aid for
Ukraine following the Russian invasion.
Di Maio said Conte's calls for the government to stop sending
weapons to Kyiv risking putting Italy out of synch with respect
to its EU and NATO allies.
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