Italian Senate Passes Draghi Cabinet Confidence Vote by Overwhelming Majority

Mario Draghi, Prime Minister of Italy [Photo by EPA Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Byunghee Park] On the 17th (local time), the Italian Senate overwhelmingly approved a vote of confidence in the new Italian cabinet led by Prime Minister Mario Draghi.

According to local media including ANSA news agency, the Senate passed the confidence vote for the Draghi cabinet with 262 votes in favor and 40 against. Two abstained. The Senate is composed of a total of 315 members, excluding six life senators without party affiliation.

All 19 senators from the far-right party 'Fratelli d'Italia' (FdI), who refused to participate in the Draghi cabinet, voted against it. Additionally, 15 members from the Five Star Movement (M5S), the largest opposition party holding 92 seats in the Senate, reportedly expressed opposition.

The Draghi cabinet is a national unity government involving almost all major parties beyond left-right ideology, so the confidence vote was expected to pass smoothly in the parliament.

The number of votes in favor of the Draghi cabinet is less than the 281 votes secured by the Mario Monti cabinet inaugurated in November 2011, but aside from that, it is the highest in recent decades.

Having easily passed the Senate vote, the Draghi cabinet will face a confidence vote in the Chamber of Deputies on the 18th. It is expected to pass with overwhelming support, just like in the Senate.

Earlier, major Italian parties regardless of left-right lines, including the two major parties in the Italian parliament?the Five Star Movement and Lega?as well as the Democratic Party (PD), Italia Viva (IV), Forza Italia (FI), and Liberi e Uguali (LeU), declared their support for Prime Minister Draghi.

Before the Senate vote, in his first policy speech after taking office, Prime Minister Draghi emphasized, "As postwar cabinets have done, we must start a new national reconstruction based on mutual trust and a sense of national solidarity." He promised to prioritize responding to the health, social, and economic crises caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, while vigorously pushing forward three major reforms in taxation, judiciary, and public administration.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.