Matteo Renzi bowed out as Italian Prime Minister today with a combination of jokes, regrets and a strong hint that he wants to lead his party into an early election battle.
Forced to quit after a crushing referendum defeat, Renzi was to formally tender his resignation to President Sergio Matterella on today evening.
Prior to handing back the keys to his Palazzo Chigi residence, the 41-year-old chaired a meeting of the executive of his Democratic Party (PD).
"We are not afraid of anything or anybody, if other parties want to go to the polls .... The PD is not afraid of democracy or elections," Renzi said in a reference to an opposition clamour for a nationwide vote due in early 2018 to be brought forward by up to a year.
Ironically, Renzi's rule came to an end with his government winning a vote of confidence in the Senate, the parliamentary chamber he tried to emasculate via a referendum in which he suffered a crushing defeat on Sunday.
The confidence vote curtailed prolonged discussion on the approval of Italy's 2017 budget - an unfinished task which had prompted President Sergio Mattarella to ask Renzi to delay his departure for a few days.
"Budget law approved. Formal resignation at 1900. Thanks to everyone and viva l'Italia!" ("long live Italy!") he tweeted. This being Italy, 1900 came and went, and Renzi had still not resigned.
After the talks at his party headquarters, Renzi said he assumed full responsibility for the referendum but gave no indication he was considering stepping down from the leadership.
He said he would be spending tomorrow, a public holiday, celebrating his grandmother's 86th birthday. "We have to thank the elderly," he said in a reference to pensioners supporting him in the referendum debate.
"And hopefully tomorrow I will have more luck in the Playstation battle with my sons than I have had here ... ," he added.
Renzi's speech sounded at times like the launch of an election campaign, with the former Florence mayor boasting of how he had left Italy with "fewer taxes and more rights" and pointedly playing up his leadership in the aftermath of a series of devastating earthquakes between August and October.
The fallout from the referendum remains unclear however with the PD beset by internal divisions that were painfully exposed by the vote.
As secretary general, Renzi controls the party apparatus, which he used to stage the coup that deposed his successor, Enrico Letta, in February 2014.
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