Matteo Renzi tenders resignation

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has formally submitted his resignation to Italy's President, three days after losing a referendum he had staked his career on.

The resignation was delivered to Sergio Mattarella, Italy’s president, two days after he first attempted to quit after suffering a resounding defeat in Sunday’s referendum on constitutional reform.

On Monday, Mattarella asked the Prime Minister to stay in office to oversee the final passage of the 2017 budget, which was passed on Wednesday.

Mattarella will start consultations with political parties over forming a caretaker government at 6:00pm on Thursday, and this is planned to go on until Saturday afternoon. After the consultaitons, Mattarella is widely expected to ask a member of Renzi's cabinet, or a politician from his Democratic Party (DP), to try to form a new government.

In the meantime, Renzi is to act as a "caretaker Prime Minister".

Elections in Italy are due in 2018 but many politicians are calling for them to be held earlier.

In a note posted on his website, Renzi finally offered a plan for how he believed PD should move forward. He called on opposition parties to join the PD to form a new government that would tackle the country’s challenges and international obligations.

“Other parties have to share the burden,” he said, adding that it would be “difficult to sustain” a situation in which the PD was depicted in the media “every day and every night” as a government that had not legitimately been elected, a frequent criticism of Renzi’s government after he entered office following an intra-party coup.

If they failed to agree, Renzi said, new elections should be called as soon as the country’s constitutional court issued its verdict on an electoral law that is under review and may need to be changed. The verdict is due 24 January.

“The Democratic party is not afraid of democracy. The Democratic party is not afraid of votes,” he said.

Italians voted on Sunday by a margin of 59% to 41% against Renzi's plans for constitutional reform, prompting his decision to stand down.

He remains the leader of the PD, the biggest party in parliament, and will play a considerable role in suggesting the name of his replacement.

Two of the big winners in Sunday's referendum, the anti-EU Northern League and anti-establishment Five Star Movement, are pushing for early elections.

But other parties, such as the centre-right Forza Italia, are trailing in the polls and want elections delayed.

Names suggested as a possible leader of a new administration include PD Finance Minister Pier Carlo Padoan and Senate leader Pietro Grasso, who is apolitical.