Italy: Matteo Renzi to resign after Senate passes 2017 budget

Outgoing Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has agreed to stay in power until the 2017 budget has been passed by the Senate, President Sergio Mattarella said on Monday. If he resigns before the Senate passes it, an interim budget will come into place until the next government comes to power. 

Renzi resigned on Monday after the 'No' campaign won with 60 percent votes in the referendum regarding constitutional reforms in the country. He had a final Cabinet meeting on Monday evening before heading to meet the president to tender in his resignation.

The 2017 budget is expected to be passed in a few days. It would assure the banking sector that the referendum would not affect the attempts at recovery in the long-term. 

The vote on Sunday against the reforms were seen as a rejection of establishment politics, even though Renzi had positioned himself as a reformist. 

Renzi, the youngest Italian prime minister when he took office, was in power for almost three years and was the fourth longest serving prime minister since 1990 in the country, indicating the political turmoil the country has seen there since the World War II. 

The Five Star Movement has been asking for early elections, but that seems unlikely as the president might choose an interim prime minister from Renzi's Democratic Party until the next election in 2018 spring. 

Finance Minister Pier Carlo Padoan is the most viable candidate for the post currently. 

At least 70 percent voters turned up for the referendum and the Yes campaign received 40 percent votes. 

Renzi was trying to shake up the political system in Italy, strengthening the central government and taking powers away from the regional governments, something that pro-democracy supporters had opposed.