Italy’s new prime minister upends the country’s political parties

IN THE DAYSMSPDMSMS when Italy’s former prime minister, Matteo Renzi, saw himself as an instrument of creative destruction, he revelled in the nickname , the Demolition Man. Today, that title is more applicable to Mario Draghi, the technocrat Mr Renzi boasts of manoeuvring into the premiership. Restrained and courteous, Mr Draghi is an unlikely wrecker. Yet his arrival has so far split the biggest party in parliament, the Five Star Movement (5), and pitched the centre-left Democratic Party () into leaderless disarray.The trouble began as soon as Mr Draghi sought parliament’s endorsement of his broad coalition. Though the Five Stars’ leaders had opted to back him and secured the approval of party members, some of its lawmakers saw this as an unacceptable capitulation. The 5 was founded to bring down the establishment, yet here it was supporting a man who embodied it. Fifteen 5 senators and 16 deputies voted “no” and were expelled. They have applied to form a new group in parliament.