Yesterday, Italy's President Sergio Mattarella dissolved parliament, prompting early elections that might bring the far right to power following rival parties' ouster of reformist Prime Minister Mario Draghi.

A government source told AFP that elections will be held on September 25, although Draghi will remain in his position as head of government until then.

Mattarella stated that dissolving parliament was always the last resort. Still, in this case, the absence of accord among the parties that comprised Draghi's national unity government rendered it "inevitable."

Despite this, he stated that Italy faced significant difficulties that must not be put on hold while the parties campaigned.

There could be no "pauses in the essential interventions to combat the effects of the economic and social crisis and the rise in inflation in particular."

'No more excuses'

According to recent surveys, a rightist alliance led by Giorgia Meloni's post-fascist Brothers of Italy party would easily win a quick election.

"No more excuses," tweeted Meloni, 45, who led the opposition vociferously throughout Draghi's term and has long advocated for new elections.

Draghi, a former head of the European Central Bank, was thrust into the position of prime minister in 2021 as Italy struggled with a pandemic and a faltering economy.

Wednesday, he attempted to preserve the government by imploring his fractious coalition to set aside their differences for the nation's good.

However, three parties — Silvio Berlusconi's center-right Forza Italia, Matteo Salvini's anti-immigrant League, and the populist Five Star Movement — stated that cooperation was no longer viable.

Without a significant ally in Europe, French President Emmanuel Macron praised Draghi as a great Italian politician and lauded his "unwavering commitment to reforming his country."

Volodymyr Zelensky thanked Draghi for his "unwavering support" since he took an uncompromising stance against Russia and played a significant role within the EU in supporting Kyiv's pursuit of EU membership.

'Enough insanity!'

The astonished center-left Democratic Party (PD), which endorsed Draghi, now places its hopes on Italians being "wiser than their elected representatives."

The most recent crisis in Italy was precipitated by Five Star's abstention from a crucial vote last week, despite Draghi's warnings that it would terminally damage the coalition.

Yesterday, anti-immigrant Salvini tweeted, "Enough with Five Star hysteria and PD power plays: Italians now have a choice."

According to political pundits, while Five Star sparked the crisis, Salvini put Draghi under the figurative bus.

The former interior minister, who has been losing support to Meloni, "saw an opportunity to regain his preeminence in the center-right and within the League," according to an editorial by Marco Damilano in the Domani newspaper.

Recent polls indicated that most Italians wanted Draghi to remain in office until the upcoming general election in May.

Investors were anxiously observing the coalition's disintegration.

Yesterday, the European Central Bank introduced a tool to alleviate strain on the bond markets for heavily indebted eurozone states, such as Italy.

The spread between 10-year Italian and German treasury bonds extended to 241 basis points after Draghi's retirement. The Milan stock market opened yesterday down 2.0%, and the spread reached a high of 241 basis points.

'Period of ambiguity'

Draghi's supporters have warned that a government collapse may exacerbate social ills during rampant inflation, delay the budget, endanger EU post-pandemic recovery funding, and throw nervous markets into a tailspin.

According to an SWG study conducted three days before Draghi's resignation, the Brothers of Italy party, which has neo-fascist roots, is leading in the polls with 23.9% of voter intentions.

To achieve a majority, it would need the League's (14% in the polls) and Forza Italia's backing (7.4 percent).

To have a chance of defeating the right, the PD may be compelled to ally with the problematic Five Star Movement (now polling at 11.2%), which is only behind Brothers of Italy in the polls.

Should a coalition led by the Brothers of Italy prevail, it "would offer a much more disruptive scenario for Italy and the EU," argued senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform Luigi Scazzieri.

Capital Economics, a research firm, reported that there were "powerful fiscal and monetary incentives" for the future government to execute the measures demanded by the European Union or face losing billions of euros in post-pandemic recovery money.

Brothers of Italy has consistently blamed Italy's difficulties on the EU.

However, Meloni's backing for a "strong and unified EU response" to Russian President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine "has already set her apart from some other right-wingers in Italy and Europe," according to Berenberg Bank's top economist, Holger Schmieding.