Italy’s prime minister Mario Draghi has said he will resign after a coalition ally pulled its support for the government.

Mr Draghi, the widely respected former head of the European Central Bank, has been at helm of a broad coalition.

He won a confidence vote in the Italian parliament earlier, but decided to resign after the 5-Star party boycotted a vote designed to help Italians with soaring energy costs.

“I will tender my resignation to the president of the republic this evening,” Mr Draghi announced during a cabinet meeting, according to a statement released by his office.

“The national unity coalition that backed this government no longer exists.”

President Sergio Mattarella will now decide whether to accept or reject the resignation, and could ask Mr Draghi to go back to parliament and ask for a vote on the government itself.

If the impasse can’t be resolved, the president could find a caretaker leader or dissolve parliament and call an election as early as September or October. An election was already due by early 2023.

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The populist 5-Star party’s was the largest in the last election in 2018, but its support has fallen in the last few years and it has complained that its interests are being ignored.

Mr Draghi, 74, is Italy’s sixth prime minister in the last decade,.

Since coming to power last February, he has helped keep the country on track with reforms mandated as part of a €200bn coronavirus recovery package from the EU.

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