Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi, heavily defeated in Sunday's reform referendum, on Wednesday night formally consigned his resignation to state president, Sergio Mattarella.
In accordance with the wishes of Mr Mattarella, the prime minister, who had announced his resignation on Sunday night, waited until the 2017 finance Bill (budget) had been approved in the senate on Wednesday afternoon before formalising that resignation.
In what is a predictably complex situation, Mr Renzi’s resignation last night is just about the only certain development so far in this government crisis. For the time being, Mr Renzi remains in office but only in an “ordinary business” caretaker capacity until such time as a new government is formed.
Mr Mattarella will on Thursday now open formal consultations with all parliamentary parties in an attempt not just to identify a successor to Mr Renzi but also to determine that successor’s parliamentary majority.
Even though three of the parties which campaigned for a No vote in Sunday's referendum, namely the Northern League, the Five Star Protest Movement (M5S) and right-wing Fratelli d'Italia, have all called for an immediate general election, Mr Mattarella argues that in the current situation such an option is "inconceivable".
Legislation
Given that in the wake of Sunday’s referendum, two different electoral laws now apply to the two houses of parliament, the president argues that before any election can be held, new electoral legislation applicable to both houses must urgently be enacted.
The president therefore intends to appoint some form of technical or single-purpose “government of national responsibility” which would introduce new electoral legislation, while overseeing ordinary government business. Then and only then would he consider dissolving parliament and calling an election.
Right from the beginning of this crisis, the president warned that “there are deadlines and commitments which the institutions must respect”. In particular, he was referring not just to the finance Bill but also to important international commitments next spring.
In March, Rome will host the 60th anniversary celebrations for the European Union's founding Treaty, namely the 1957 Treaty of Rome, while in May the G7 summit is due to be held in Taormina, Sicily. Mr Mattarella and government figures are reportedly worried that an ongoing election campaign would provide an inappropriate background to these events.
Inevitably, the M5S reacted negatively to the possibility that no early general election will be called.
Danger level
“The next move will be to demonise us, me and all of our people,” the movement’s charismatic leader, Beppe Grillo, warned the party faithful.
“And while they are doing that, they will be busy inventing some sort of fraudulent electoral law which guarantees that the M5S (vote) can never get beyond ‘danger level’.”
Mr Grillo and other M5S figures were also keen to point out on Wednesday that a majority of parliamentarians would be loath to go to an early election because it could cost them their parliamentary pensions.
“Those who want another solution [rather than an early election] simply want to impose yet another unelected government on the country . . . so that they get through to September 2017 when they qualify for their golden parliamentary pensions.”
Ironically, the market impact of the current crisis seemed negligible on Wednesday with the Milan bourse’s FTSE MIB index up 2.1 per cent at close of trade.
This good showing was probably based on speculation that the finance ministry might be considering a €2.1 billion intervention in the problematic Banca Monte Dei Paschi di Siena in order to avoid a post-referendum crisis in the Italian banking sector. Shares in MPS rose by 10.79 per cent on Wednesday.