ROME – When Giuseppe Conte left the Italian premier’s office over the weekend, Chigi Palace employees leaned out the windows to warmly applaud him after his more than 2 1/2 years at Italy's helm.
His spokesperson turned teary-eyed. But that’s hardly likely to be Conte’s last hurrah in Italian politics. Barely a few hours after Saturday's palace ceremony to formally transfer power to Mario Draghi, the former European Central Bank chief now tasked with leading economically-devastated Italy in the pandemic, Conte dashed off a thank-you note on Facebook to Italian citizens.
It read more like an ’’arrivederci″ ("Until we see each other again") than a retreat from the volatile, oft-bizarre world of Italian politics.