Italy’s democracy is set aside as Intelligence and pro-lockdown doctors jump in

The Italian government and his PM, Giuseppe Conte, are in serious trouble as his already weak coalition fell apart last week after former PM Matteo Renzi pulled his Italia Viva party out. Conte managed to pass a confidence vote in Italy's lower house of parliament but failed to secure a majority in the Senate, the upper house, after Italia Viva's opposition to Conte's plans for spending more than €200 billion of EU recovery fund cash. Additionally, Renzi had asked Conte to give up his intelligence portfolio, something that the PM was carefully trying to avoid and in part he did, by appointing his diplomatic advisor, Pietro Benassi.