Italian state president Sergio Mattarella has called on Matteo Renzi to delay his formal resignation as prime minister until next Friday, as the country comes to terms with the latter's heavy defeat in Sunday's constitutional reform referendum.
In an emotional press conference on Sunday night, Mr Renzi had indicated that he would resign as prime minister on Monday afternoon.
However, he held an unusual informal meeting with Mr Mattarella on Monday morning during which the head of state called on him to delay his resignation until Friday so that the 2017 Finance Bill, or budget, can be rushed through parliament and approved before he leaves office.
Mr Mattarella reportedly also asked Mr Renzi whether he would be willing to reconsider his resignation and stay on in office, but Mr Renzi rejected that idea.
After their morning meeting, the president issued a statement in which he pointed out that “there are deadlines and commitments which the institutions must respect, guaranteeing an adequate response to the problems of the moment”.
Oversee approval
Analysts took this to mean the president had asked Mr Renzi to delay his resignation, not only to oversee the approval of the budget but also to limit any sense of a power vacuum which could inspire market volatility.
Given the difficult task confronting him in appointing a new head of government, Mr Mattarella will probably be grateful for some extra time to ponder his next move.
At this point, the president has essentially two options. He can either opt for a so-called “technical” government, which would lead the executive through to the end of the legislature in early 2018, or he could nominate a senior figure in the Renzi administration to lead a caretaker government through to the general election in 2018.
Either government would have the merit of providing continuity and a safe pair of hands, thus sparing Italy the stress and possible market turbulence provoked by an early general election.
Were the president to opt for the technical government, then the most favoured candidate would appear to be the current speaker of the Senate, Pietro Grasso.
Likely choices
Were he to opt for someone from Mr Renzi's cabinet, then the most likely choices would be finance minister Piercarlo Padoan, infrastructure minister Graziano Del Rio, or arts minister Dario Franceschini.
The immediate future is further complicated by the fact that, as things stand, different electoral laws apply to the two houses of parliament. Mr Renzi’s new electoral law, the Italicum, applies in the lower house, while the so-called Consultellum applies in the upper house.
This is because when Mr Renzi introduced his legislation, he made it applicable only in the lower house, since his intention was to eliminate an elected Senate with Sunday’s referendum package.
The electoral legislative situation reaches Kafkaesque proportions when one realises that in January the Italicum, or lower house system, may well be ruled unconstitutional by the constitutional court. Furthermore, the Consultellum, which applies in the Senate, is essentially a law designed by the constitutional court, which in 2013 ruled that the previous electoral legislation was also unconstitutional.
Given this absurd situation, forces such as the Five Star Movement (M5S) and the Northern League have called for an early general election to be held as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, between now and next Friday, Mr Renzi faces a critical moment when his Partito Democratico holds a Wednesday assembly, which may call for his resignation as PD leader.