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| - Members of Italy's populist Five Star Movement (M5S) voted Thursday to support a government of national unity under Mario Draghi, clearing the ex-European bank chief's path to becoming prime minister. The M5S, the biggest party in parliament, joins almost all of Italy's political parties in backing Draghi, who was brought in last week after the centre-left coalition under outgoing premier Giuseppe Conte collapsed. Leaders of the M5S, which began life as an anti-establishment movement, had already indicated it would support the former European Central Bank president, but the membership was split. In an online poll Thursday, in which almost 75,000 of nearly 120,000 eligible M5S members took part, 59.3 percent voted to join a new government. "At one of the most dramatic moments in our recent history, the Five Star Movement has chosen the path of courage and participation, but above all, it has chosen the European path," outgoing M5S Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said on Facebook. Draghi was brought in by President Sergio Mattarella to try to build a broad-based government to help Italy navigate the destruction wrought by the coronavirus pandemic, which has plunged the economy into recession and cost more than 92,000 lives. The former ECB chief -- dubbed "Super Mario" after vowing to do "whatever it takes" to save the EU's single currency during the debt crisis of the 2010s -- would have probably been able to form a government even without the M5S. Nearly all Italy's other parties have rallied behind him, including the far-right League of Matteo Salvini. But Federico Santi, an analyst at Eurasia Group, noted that "committed backing from M5S -- the largest party in parliament -- is important for him to set off with the broadest possible parliamentary majority, and to be less dependent on (Salvini)". There is speculation Draghi could return to meet with Mattarella as early as Friday to confirm his willingness to form a new government, after which he and his chosen cabinet ministers would need to be sworn in. He would then have to submit to votes of confidence in parliament, potentially on Monday and Tuesday. The M5S had postponed the membership vote earlier this week after party founder Beppe Grillo called for Draghi to give more details about his programme. It reinstated the vote after claiming to have secured key commitments from Draghi, including on environmental and welfare policy. He himself has not made any public comment on the issue. Draghi's immediate tasks include speeding up Italy's coronavirus vaccination programme, which made a promising start in December but has since slowed, amid concerns over the spread of new Covid-19 variants. The Rome government must also come up with a plan by April to spend more than 200 billion euros ($240 billion) in European Union loans and grants, to help recover from its worst recession since World War II. Getting a say on how to spend that cash is an obvious attraction for parties to join the government, even as part of a hotchpotch coalition. Italy has been without a fully functioning government for almost a month since former Matteo Renzi withdrew his Italia Viva party from the ruling centre-left coalition, in a row triggered by a dispute over the EU funds. Conte was finally forced to resign last week. The M5S and its main partner, the centre-left Democratic Party, tried to patch things up with Renzi but failed. aa-ar/har
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