 Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi resigned on July 21. This followed a political crisis over the past week as his coalition of centrist and right-wing forces unraveled. President Sergio Mattarella has dissolved the parliament and called for fresh elections on September 25. The resignation of Draghi marks an end to an unusual coalition, where erstwhile opponents came together under a technocrat. How did this coalition form in the first place and how did it end up collapsing? Maurizio Capuolo of the leftist political party, Pothera Al-Popolo explains. We have to remember that Draghi was designed to be the new Prime Minister after two governments of Giuseppe Conte in the same parliamentary time. So we had elections in 2018, we had the first Conte government that was a coalition between La Lega and the Cinque Stelle, the five-star movement. So far right with like the populist option in Italy, then we had the second government of Conte that was like the five-star movement with the center left. And then there was like the contradictions inside of the Italian government were too huge to continue also in the context of like the money linked to the pandemic that was distributed from Europe like the next generation, the recovery fund. And so there was a need for a government of national unity, how they called it. And it was like the government of the best, how they called it. And they choose Mario Draghi. Mario Draghi is the former chief of the European Central Bank, the former chief of the Italian Central Bank, but also a chief of Goldman Sachs in these days. So Sergio Mattarella, the president of Italy, chose him to have like the assurance that like the different interests inside of the bourgeoisie of the Italian bourgeoisie can be pulled together with like a man that can be defined as super parties, like non-aligned in a political sense or like a technician that can in a way distribute the money, spend the money of the next generation in a good way, of course, for capital and in the sense of neoliberal reforms. So this is like the way this coalition was built. Everyone in the parliament, every party knew that without like a man like Mario Draghi, it would be difficult to have like to continue with this parliamentary time. So that would be anticipated elections. But it was like a too difficult time in February 2021 to have advanced and anticipated elections. So the party said, OK, we give our support to this government. Now, what happened in the last days? No one expected it. Not even left forces said that there will be like a couple of months before the end of this parliamentary time that Draghi will retire. There is like there was a crisis inside of the five star movement. Giuseppe Conte, the former Prime Minister, stopped his support to Draghi because he said there are some reforms we do not accept. But of course, every other political party in the parliament started then to make their own calculations, how it would be the best to to to deal for having like the best situation in the next government. So the far right, for example, they have like in the polls, everyone saying that they can reach 35, 40 percent. So they said, OK, maybe it's the moment to ask for anticipated elections. And so they also stopped to give the support to Mario Draghi. At the end, what what can be said is that there is a huge contrast between the political institutional crisis, Italy is living today and the general situation of the working people in Italy. There is no there is a huge contrast in the sense that people are suffering from inflation, like high increasing prices for basic goods and so on and so on. And the the in the institutions, the parties are like, yeah, having this situation, not taking in consideration what really is going on in the in in society. And this is like the situation we are living today. It's a devastating situation. The Draghi government came to power at a difficult time for the country as it struggled with the aftermath of a disastrous first wave of the pandemic. His mandate was to impose policies agreed upon by financial institutions and continue on the path of reforms. What has been the legacy of the Draghi government? During this period, how have various political formations, especially the far right, grown? As I said before, Draghi was like implemented as a man over the prior to the other particular interests. So a man that could bring together all the interests of the Italian bourgeoisie and he was implemented in 2021 in February. So in a period in which everyone was thinking, OK, the pandemic is becoming it's coming to an end and so on and so on. Then we had the war. So he revealed himself like as as really the the man for the bourgeoisie, the man for private interests of the capital. For example, he is increasing military spending like the famous two percent of GDP asked by NATO and the US on the ecology, ecology level. He's going back to carbon. So he's going back to like a fast cylinder to energy sources that are destroying our nature on foreign relations. He's like a very clear position against Russia and in favor of NATO and US, but he's making deals with Algeria. Like we know that in Algeria, democratic rights, social rights are not guaranteed. He's making deals with Israel and Egypt also for for questions of energy and gas. So two countries that are not very known for for a well functioning democracy. He did nothing, anything, no measures against tax evasion. A problem that in Italy is really a huge problem. He abolished the lay of prohibition during the crisis. So at the beginning of his of his time in February 2021, this this meant that a lot of people got unemployed or got only precarious jobs. So this is like this is the these are the legacies of Mario Draghi today. It is clearly like politics made for capital, made for neoliberal reforms, made for the distribution of the money that everyone in Italy can be OK. I mean, the bourgeoisie and then we can have new elections in 2023. Now the time it's like it's we suppressed a little bit of months. And now we will have like anticipated elections in September or October. So what is coming in the next month? It's at the electoral level. It's exactly this like there is there will be a rise of the of the far right. We can already foreseen and there will be like a huge discussion how the left should also participate in these elections in a context in which, of course, we have a huge or a growing quantity of people not going to vote. So like absenteeism, it's a very important thing. And the second thing we have a lack of social mobilization by working class. And this is something that is not only now, but it's something we are experiencing since 10 years, more or less. There was no huge general demonstration for social rights and so on in Italy. It's not like in France. I always make this comparison with France. In France, we have the gilet jaune, the yellow west, which was in a way also like a social mobilization that gave the power and the possibility to the far left and to the left political forces to grow and to implement their program. This is something lacking. The class consciousness is really on the deepest level since years. And this is a huge challenge. The polls, they all are saying that the far right, the right coalition composed by the brothers of Italy, of George Ameloni, La Lega of Matteo Salvini and Forza Italia of Silvio Berlusconi is still there. Silvio Berlusconi, this coalition, they are saying that they will reach 35 to 40 percent more or less. So they will have the opportunity to make to govern the country. This will be something very problematic also for like the the liberal forces because they have a very clear non-European program that attacks also like the working class interests, of course. So there will be like a continuation in these attacks of the working class. But like in other way, they have like this non-European approach that that, of course, for the center left parties and forces, that's very important to be aligned to the European Union, to be aligned to the NATO and the US. And so the Democratic Party is making like already today, let the responsible the general secretary of the Democratic Party already spoke about we need to fight against the the huge evil that is like the far right. And for that, we need like also there like coalition respected the national interests and so on and so on. There is not such a thing that the national interest, there is only class interests. And I think this is the huge problem of the Democratic Party. They continue with neoliberal programs with representing the interests of the bourgeoisie of one fraction of the bourgeoisie. And then we have the third element that should be taken in consideration. We had in 2018, the five star movement reaching 34 percent of the consensus, the electoral consensus. Today, there is no populist option anymore. The five star movement is divided because foreign ministry, Luigi Di Maio, got out of the five star movement and made his own organization, own party and Giuseppe Conta with the crisis you are living now is also like the his consensus is decreasing. So there is like this is more or less the situation institutionally for the elections. The left is one of the few particular sectors that did not join the Draghi experiment. In fact, trade unions and the left were in the forefront of opposition to many of Draghi's policies, what tasks and challenges lie ahead for the left, keeping in mind the rapid political developments. The situation is very difficult and complicated for the left. Today, we have no left in the in the parliament. We have a central left that is like supporting the Democratic Party. And so was also supporting the government of Mario Draghi. So I think parties supporting Mario Draghi cannot be considered as left parties. And and there are like different levels of challenges for the left. So on the election, electoral level, on the institutional level, we will have to collect signatures for participating at the elections. This will be a huge task, because if the elections will be at the end of September or the beginning of October, we have to collect a lot of signatures in a couple of weeks. So this is this is already one first element that is like also blocking the Democratic participation of the left. So this is like this is important to taking consideration. Then there is, I think, a general task, because what we are seeing today is like that the ruling class classes are no longer able to govern. And the government government classes became aware of their strength and the lack of alternatives within the existing framework. But the problem is that this is expressing itself like abstentionism. So people not going to vote. This illusion is too big in the in the institutional framework. So what the big challenge is for the future is like to work on organizing these classes, these exploited classes to raise and to increase the subjective awareness of these classes and and to build social protests, because we know that even in elections, if you have a strong left without social movements, without social protests, without the pressure from outside of the institutions, it will be very difficult also for a genuine left to make reforms in this general context of crisis and of repression against against the social forces. So this is like, I think the biggest task for having radical change. You have to build class consciousness, organize the classes, the oppressed classes.