Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte will resign on Tuesday in an escalation of the political instability that has enveloped the country as it battles both the Covid-19 pandemic and a brutal recession.
Mr Conte will see his ministers on Tuesday morning to inform them of his decision, and then meet Italian president Sergio Mattarella to offer his resignation, according to a government spokesman.
He is then expected to attempt to form a new government within the existing parliament after his current coalition was stripped of its majority by the resignation of a junior party earlier this month.
However as Mr Conte lacks his own political party, having been a political unknown before being unexpectedly named prime minister in 2018, he will have to depend on the continuing support of the leaders of the two largest parties in his current coalition — the Five Star Movement and the Democratic Party.
Immediately after Mr Conte’s plans to resign were confirmed, Nicola…