ROME – Italy’s president is expected to ask Mario Draghi, the former European Central Bank chief credited with saving the euro, to try to lead Italy through the coronavirus pandemic after last-ditch talks among squabbling politicians failed to produce a viable new coalition.
President Sergio Mattarella summoned Draghi, 73, for a noon meeting Wednesday at the Quirinale Palace. Mattarella was expected to ask Draghi to try to form a non-political government to replace caretaker Premier Giuseppe Conte’s coalition of the 5-Star Movement and Democratic Party.
Conte was forced to resign last month after ex-Premier Matteo Renzi pulled his ministers of his small, centrist Italy Alive party from Conte’s government.