Former Italian Prime Minister Renzi Launches Petition Urging Draghi to Stay in Office

ROME (Sputnik) - The former Italian prime minister and the leader of the centrist Italia Viva party, Matteo Renzi, has launched a petition on Friday urging the current head of government, Mario Draghi, to stay in office until elections next spring.

On Thursday, Draghi announced that he would resign from the post of head of government due to the lack of political unity.

"We ask Mario Draghi to return to the Chigi Palace with a clear program of several points to be announced in Parliament, without further negotiations with the majority political forces and with a government that he fully trusts. We want Draghi to lead Italy at least until the elections in 2023," Renzi said in a statement published on the website of his party.

According to the former prime minister, the responsibility for the political crisis lies with the leader of the Five Star Movement political party, Giuseppe Conte, whose actions Renzi called "meanness" that harms the country and its foreign policy.

On Thursday, the Italian Senate expressed confidence in the government but one of the ruling coalition members, the Five Star Movement, refused to take part in the vote, thus reflecting their internal disagreement.

Draghi proceeded to announce his resignation after the Five Star Movement boycotted the vote, but his resignation was later rejected by Italian President Sergio Mattarella, who asked him to address the Parliament for clarifications on his situation.