ITALIAN PM WINS VOTE OF CONFIDENCE

Italy's Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte won a vote of confidence in the Chamber of Deputies in Rome late on Monday in the midst of a government crisis.

Conte's center-left alliance won an absolute majority of 321 votes in the larger of the two chambers of parliament, a spokesman for the lower house in Rome said.

It was the first of two planned votes of confidence. The Senate is expected to vote on Tuesday, January 19, Petra Kaminsky and Johannes Neudecker reported for Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa).

The vote in the Senate is considered critical, because Conte's position there is significantly weaker than in the larger chamber. The 56-year-old needs the approval of both chambers.

The confidence vote was sparked by the decision of the Italia Viva party of former prime minister Matteo Renzi to withdraw from the ruling coalition, robbing it of a majority.

Renzi has butted heads with Conte in a fight over the best way to use EU funds being sent to Italy to help it deal with the economic shocks of the coronavirus pandemic.

Renzi wants more investments in the healthcare system and for the government to seek more emergency funding.

If Conte cannot find another partner for his center-left alliance or work out a deal with Renzi, new elections loom, which could be favorable to the country's right-wing populists.

However, there is also hope Conte could cobble together a new coalition, his third since taking office in 2018, or find a way to forge a government of national unity.

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