Italy's technical Prime Minister Mario Draghi fails and breaks

And so, Mario Draghi has resigned and the government of the best (as its members call themselves) is teetering to the point that early general elections could be around the corner, likely by the end of September or by October.

Let's go in order, because this is not as simple and clear as it might seem.

First, Mario Draghi is a "technical” prime minister. That is, external to parliament and unelected. This of him is the third such government since the legislature began, after the first two chaired by Giuseppe "people's advocate” Conte (sic). In this, there is no violation of the law or the Constitution, at most an abuse of an instrument that the Founding Fathers of the Italian Republic had provided for emergency situations, certainly not for administering the State as has happened in the last four years.

Second, the government had confidence in both the House and the Senate, from all parties, including the Northern League of Senator Matteo Salvini (who is part of this government while saying he detests it) and Fratelli d'Italia [Brothers of Italy] of Senator Giorgia Meloni, who officially would be in the opposition ranks but who, after the start of Russia's Special Military Operation in Ukraine, rediscovered herself as an Atlanticist, pro-NATO and remembered at once that in Russia communists eat babies, especially inside those sinister Kremlin chambers so well protected by high blood-colored walls.

This government crisis started because about fifty senators from the 5 Stars Movement walked out just before the vote. Mario Draghi, already angry at not becoming the new president of the Republic instead of the reappointed Sergio Mattarella, decided to leave the office because he was apparently tired of the back-and-forth of Italian politics, he so used to being obeyed without a peep. However, only next Wednesday, July 20, it will be known whether his government is defunct for good or there will be a Draghi 2 "revenge of the zombies”. This No. 2 government in theory is supposed to stand until March 2023 when the legislation officially ends and there should be the scheduled general election.

A government elected in October would face all the consequences of the sanctions imposed on Russia:

• heating problems right at the beginning of winter;
• shortages in gas supplies;
• difficulties in producing the necessary amount of electricity;
• skyrocketing fuel, food and raw material prices;
• factory closures and layoffs.

Add to this an increase in Covid cases because about 90 percent of the Italian population is vaccinated and experimental gene serums passed off as vaccines are already beginning to -- how should I put it? -- work in reverse.

The pressure on such an October-government would be huge and the government itself would easily end up in the indictment bench with the serious risk that the political careers of its members would be crushed. A Draghi 2 would allow this parliament (the parliament, not the country) to be ferried through perilous waters but it would probably be necessary to grant immunity to the prime minister who is many things but not dumb.

As a side note (but only intellectually) we note that many MPs will not be re-elected in the new parliament because one of the laws passed by the first Conte government is precisely cutting the number of MPs.

In other words: there is no longer room for everyone, the numbers are not what they used to be. Early general elections also imply the loss of the last months of salary for precisely those MPs who will no longer be elected: about a hundred thousand euros, maybe a little more. Given and considering that some of them were simply unemployed before they were elected, one can well understand their personal drama.

In essence, no party now present in parliament would really want to go to the polls, and if they could, they would not even go next March. And all this would just be a farcical comedy with shoddy actors if there were not the daily dramas of the many Italians struggling to make their next paycheck.

To know what will really happen, we really have to wait until next Wednesday.