Foreign minister Luigi Di Maio on Thursday warned "the world is watching" Italy after ex-premier Matteo Renzi pulled his Italia Viva party's ministers from the centre-left coalition government, triggering a political crisis amid a sharp Coronavirus surge and economic recession.
"Yesterday, Matteo Renzi opted to withdraw his ministers, causing the umpteenth government crisis," Di Maio wrote on Facebook.
"The world is watching us and sadly we can't feel proud about this," the post added.
Renzi announced the resignation of two cabinet ministers and a junior minister from the Italia Viva party, in a split that deprives premier Giuseppe Conte of his parliamentary majority.
The move follows disagreements between Renzi and Conte over the government's plans on how to spend over 200 billion euros in grants and loans that Italy is set to receive from the European Union's COVID-19 pandemic recovery fund. Renzi also wants Italy to accept a further 36 billion euros of loans for Italy’s health system from the EU bailout fund .
The government crisis comes as Coronavirus-hit Italy began this month to roll out a COVID-19 vaccination programme.
Italy's dramatic Covid-19 outbreak has claimed more than 80,000 lives and its economic output is predicted to have shrunk about 10% in 2020 - its biggest drop since World War II.
