Italy waited on Wednesday to hear whether elections loomed, as the country’s fractious parties furiously debated whether to support Draghi and his appeal for a new “pact of trust”.

Now was not the time for uncertainty within the eurozone’s third largest economy, amid domestic and geopolitical challenges from a struggling economy to the Ukraine war, Draghi earlier told the Senate.

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The premier threw the onus on parties across the political spectrum to put aside their differences and join together as it had in February 2021 when Draghi took the helm of a newly formed unity government to address Italy’s myriad challenges, from coronavirus to the economy.

“The only way forward if we want to stay together is to rebuild afresh this (government) pact with courage, selflessness, credibility,” Draghi told the Senate.

“Are you ready? … You don’t owe this answer to me, but to all Italians”.

The stern speech by a usually softly-spoken Draghi suggested that the former leader of the European Central Bank was prepared to stay – but on one condition: if the wildly disparate parties pledge anew to a common agenda.

READ ALSO: ‘We need stability’: Calls grow for Italy’s Draghi to stay on as PM

The crisis was sparked by the refusal by the Five Star Movement, a coalition member, to opt out of a confidence vote.

Parliamentarians will now debate for over five hours, setting out their positions. Draghi will then respond, before a vote later Wednesday.

If he survives all that, the process will be repeated in the lower house on Thursday.

Otherwise, Italy’s president could dissolve parliament and call elections for September or October.

After Draghi attempted to resign from his post on Thursday, the president urged him to go to parliament to find out whether his fractured coalition can be saved – or if snap elections are unavoidable.

There’s a lot at stake: a government collapse at a time of soaring inflation could delay the budget, threaten EU post-pandemic recovery funds and send jittery markets into a tailspin.

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Polls suggest most Italians want Draghi, 74, to stay at the helm of the eurozone’s third-largest economy until the scheduled general election in May next year.

Parties on the centre-left have said they will support Draghi, but a question mark remains over right-leaning Forza Italia and the League, which have ruled out staying in government with Five Star.

“We are in the middle of an Italian-style political crisis, so predictions change utterly from one second to the next,” Giovanni Orsina, head of the Luiss School of Government in Rome, told AFP.