Italy will hold early general elections on 25 September

Italy has decided to hold early general elections on 25 September as a solution to the crisis of Mario Draghi's national unity government, which was forced to resign by the withdrawal of three important coalition partners.

The president of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, himself announced his decision to dissolve the parliament, elected in March 2018, and end the legislature eight months ahead of schedule.

"This is always the last election, particularly if, as in this term, before the Parliament there are important duties to fulfil in the interest of our country, but the political situation has led me to do so," he said in a serious tone, almost faintly reprimanding.

The early election of this legislature is the epilogue to Draghi's resignation, formalised before Mattarella, although he will remain in office until the formation of the new government.

The head of state, who in January reluctantly accepted a second term in office because of the climate of political confrontation, called on the leaders to think of the country: "I hope that, in the intense and sometimes sharp dialectic of the election campaign, a constructive contribution will be made by all in the best interests of Italy", he urged.

For the "demands", he said, are many and important: combating inflation and the last throes of the pandemic, containing the effects of the war in Ukraine and strengthening "the increasingly necessary collaboration at European and international level".

For this reason, because there is no time to lose, the Council of Ministers met to choose a date and immediately opted for 25 September, government sources confirmed to Efe.

Draghi presided over a coalition of national unity for the past 17 months, starting in February 2021, when he was tasked with governing to manage the pandemic crisis after the fall of his predecessor, Giuseppe Conte, leader of the 5-Star Movement (M5S).

His coalition was supported by virtually all the parties in the legislature, from left to right, except for Giorgia Meloni's far-right Brothers of Italy.

However, he decided to resign on the 14th after losing the support of the M5S, after weeks of disagreements over various issues, including an anti-inflation decree and the populist party's reluctance to continue arming the Ukrainian resistance.

At the time, the head of state rejected the resignation and called on Draghi to settle their crisis in parliament, where he went on Wednesday with the intention of renewing his coalition and bringing all parties back together to complete the legislature.

But, far from achieving this, he witnessed the abandonment of two other important partners, Matteo Salvini's ultra-right-wing League and Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right Forza Italia.

The prestigious former president of the European Central Bank will remain in office until the formation of the new government, a time that is not always short in Italy.

For example, for the birth of Giuseppe Conte's first government, with the coalition between the M5S and Salvini, it took almost three months, from the general elections of 4 March 2018 to 1 June 2018, the day of the oath of office.

The abandonment of Draghi by Conte, Salvini and Berlusconi has been branded "irresponsible" by the rest of the coalition, given that it comes as the country is trying to implement the reforms that will give access to the European millions of the Recovery Plan.

But the urgency also includes tackling soaring energy prices, tackling inflation at a record high since 1986, getting rid of dependence on Russian gas and, above all, drafting next year's budget law.

The secretary of the progressive Democratic Party (PD), Enrico Letta, branded the parties that caused Draghi's downfall as irresponsible, while the acting foreign minister, Luigi Di Maio, accused the League and his former party Five Star of causing the crisis in a "nod" to Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Meanwhile, the veteran Berlusconi, another of the architects of the Draghi lunge, sees his party being torn apart by his decision, with the departure of two of his long-time collaborators, Renato Brunetta and Mariastella Gelmini, the incumbent ministers of public administration and regional affairs respectively.

Italy is thus preparing for a highly atypical election campaign, the first to take place in the middle of summer, which is also expected to be short, intense and very tough, especially due to the fierce confrontation between the parties, whose ties have been severely eroded after this convulsive legislature.

In short, the country is heading towards a clash of blocs, the PD's left, with a probable alliance with the M5S, and a populist right wing embodied by Salvini, Berlusconi and a Meloni who, as the only opposition to Draghi, has positioned herself as the leading political force in the polls.