Italy PM Renzi resigns, president to consult with parties

(Ettore Ferrari/ANSA via AP).

One of the most popular parties in Italy right now-called the Five Star Movement-doesn’t like the European Union or the euro very much.

Sunday, Italians voted decisively against changes to the constitution put forward by Renzi, a vote that became a poll on the prime minister’s leadership.

Now President Sergio Mattarella will be anxious to ease fears of instability, but in reality he will be helpless to do so.

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi announced he would resign today, three days after suffering a stinging defeat in a referendum on constitutional change.

He formally handed in his resignation to Mattarella after the country’s 2017 budget was approved in Senate.

Mattarella is expected to sound out other party leaders on what to do next. The next parliamentary elections are in 2018, but there are increasing calls to hold a vote a year earlier.

Renzi made a decision to resign after voters Sunday resoundingly rejected government-backed constitutional reforms in a referendum.

As for Mr Renzi, he has thus far managed to avoid confrontation with his internal critics in the Partito Democratico (PD).

The comments will add to growing support for a quick vote as the only way to avoid protracted political limbo in Italy following Sunday’s “No” vote (4 December) on Renzi’s constitutional reforms. If such a government is not possible, then the PD wants an early election, they said.

Ultimately, it will be up to Mattarella to decide whether Parliament should be sent packing early.

May had planned to draw on royal prerogative – the power once allowed monarchs to enter and leave worldwide treaties without Parliament’s approval – to trigger Article 50 of the European Union’s Lisbon Treaty by April 2017. Since the budget law has been approved he (Renzi) offered the resignation of the government over which he presides.

Even though he is now ineligible for public office for six years, following his 2013 ban from parliament in the wake of a tax fraud conviction, Mr Berlusconi may be part of the Forza Italia delegation that meets Mr Mattarella on Saturday afternoon.

Movement founder Beppe Grillo has long railed against Italy’s membership in the eurozone, the 19 countries where the euro is the official currency.

“My experience of government finishes here”, said a downcast Renzi after acknowledging a defeat of nearly 60-40 percent over his constitutional reform bid, which cast a shadow over the short- and long-term future of the eurozone’s third-largest economy.

Soon after the Senate vote, Mr Renzi tweeted that he would visit the president at 19:00 (18:00 GMT).

“The experience of my government ends here”, Renzi said in a televised address to the nation.

Banca MPS shares have rallied sharply in the last 48 hours on talk that a government bailout and refinancing package is being prepared for the weekend. The Constitutional Court investigating the legal validity of the electoral reform will express its binding judgement on 24 January: if the reform is rejected, Parliament will have to pass a new law or else the next elections will occur under the present proportional system.