ROME - The former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has caused yet more uproar after flying to Riyadh for a ‘20 minute conference’ in the midst of a governmental crisis for which many think he is to blame.

  Renzi, a Senator and the leader of the Italia Viva party, last week caused a vote of confidence for the current Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, having withdrawn the support of Italia Viva from Conte’s coalition government. Though Conte won the votes of confidence, he still did not have an absolute majority in government, and so on Tuesday handed in his resignation to the President Sergio Mattarella. Mattarella is due to start formal consultations on Wednesday evening in regard to possibly giving Conte mandate to form his third coalition government. 

  Renzi is under fire for being in Riyadh, and now having to rush back to Italy for these discussions on Wednesday evening. He flew to Riyadh last week, as revealed by Emiliano Fittipladi for Domani and confirmed by Renzi’s staff, for a series of conferences organised by the FII institute, a newly established non-profit foundation funded by the Saudi sovereign fund. An international event on global post-pandemic innovation, the other speakers including David M. Solomon, the CEO of Goldman Sachs, and Jean-Bernard Levy, the CEO of EDF. 

  Renzi is due, as a board member of the institution, to receive up to 80 million dollars a year if he participated in all the events. His 20 minute speech on Thursday night, as part of a conference titled “Redefining leadership for the post-Covid era: how to inspire an economic rebirth in the 21st century” will now be conducted remotely, having had to fly back to Rome for urgent discussions will Mattarella and the various leaders of the Italian political parties.

ol