Italian cabinet narrowly wins confidence vote in senate

ROME - The Italian cabinet led by Prime Minister Mario Draghi won a confidence vote by a thin majority in the senate on Wednesday.

The confidence procedure ended with 95 votes in favor of the government and 38 votes against. Out of the 320 eligible senators, only 133 took part in the voting.

Local media reported that such an outcome was likely to put the government at risk of falling, since it showed that the broad left-to-right coalition backing the cabinet's action since its inception has faltered.

Earlier in the day, Draghi appealed to political forces in the senate to stop divisions and to agree on "a new cohesion pact" in order to let the government continue delivering urgent policies.

"The only way, if we still want to stay together, is to rebuild a new pact with courage, unselfishness and credibility," Draghi told the senators.

In the following confidence procedure, however, the center-right coalition's lawmakers and those with populist Five Star Movements did not cast their votes.

As required by the country's constitution, a second confidence vote is now scheduled in the lower house on Thursday morning.

Since being appointed by Mattarella in February 2021, Draghi has led a unity government supported by a broad coalition spanning from left to right, but for one right-wing party.

Yet political tensions regarding the cabinet's priorities grew in the latest weeks.

Last week, Draghi formally offered to resign after the Five Star Movement, a major party in his national unity coalition, boycotted a confidence vote on the government's draft bill aimed at alleviating soaring prices. Mattarella later rejected Draghi's resignation.