 Italy is all set to have its snap elections on September 22. The election comes in the context of the dissolution of the Italian parliament in July 8 months ahead of its term ending. Voting will be held to 400 seats in the chamber of deputies as well as 200 elective seats in the Senate of the Republic. All major political parties and coalitions are competing in these elections. This includes the right-wing League, Social Democratic Democratic Party, and the populist five-star movement. Leftist parties have also launched an electoral platform called the People's Union and have begun campaigning across the country. The People's Union was launched on July 9 comprising Pote Real Populo, Democracy and Autonomy, Communist Re-Foundation Party, Manifest A, Socialist Rebirth and Party of the South. We have put forward the 12-point program in the manifesto titled The Italy We Need. Union e Popolare Populi Union has a 12-point program and this 12-point program is organized around four main axes. The first axis is peace so we are against war of course. We are one of the only alliance in these elections who is positioning ourselves against war directly and concretely. The second point is labor and wealth redistribution. The third point, the third axis is green transition, a really green transition in the context of like a redistribution of money in Europe of the next generation, you money. And the fourth and last one, it's like strengthen the public sector against the private interests above all in transport, health and school. So I mean it's clear that in this context, in this conjuncture like in Italy with the drug government, every that was a government of national unity, every single party sustained and supported the intervention of Italy in the war in Ukraine and that has huge consequences for the working class and for the people. We are an organization, we are an alliance that is saying we are against the militarization of the Ukrainian war and of our societies in general. We have to stop sending the weapons to Ukraine. We have to stop using the military bases in Italy of the US and the NATO to get involved into the war and we have to stop increasing the military expenditure to 2% of the GDP how NATO and the US is asking. The money is needed for solving everyday problems of the working class and of the people, as for example, energy bills increasing in Italy by 100 to 100 or even 300% in the last months. So the money is needed and we know where to find the money. We have to taxing the extra profits of the private energy companies. You have to stop to spend the money for war in Europe and all over the world. Then the second main point and the main campaign, Poterello Popolo and Tugnone Popolare is running since months. We are fighting for a legal minimum wage of at least 10 euro per hour. Officially 5.5 million workers are earning less than 10 euro per hour and they are considered working poor. That means that they have really problems to get at the end of the month by paying bills and so on and so on. And on this 5.5 million workers being working poor from the statistics are excluded also people not working regularly and being integrated in irregular work. So the official number of people of working poor people, it's even higher. So this is a measure, a very concrete measure that is solving social problems in Italy and every single party in the parliament today is fighting against a legal minimum wage. They give the responsibility to the companies and are saying the companies should decide by themselves how much they should pay. They should have social responsibilities and we know that in the situation of crisis social responsibility is not like a social thing but it's a private thing. Private interests are always put before the general interest. So we say the state has to intervene, the state has to define a legal minimum wage. We have already also a low proposition prepared. We will deposit it in the parliament on September 26, the day after the elections because we know that if we do it now it will be forgotten in the parliament and so the next government will not take it in consideration. We will deposit it on September 26 to show that we will be there also after the elections. And the last thing, I think the green transition, it's very important because of two reasons. First of all, in green transition a lot of public money is connected. We have like, as I said, the next generation new money coming from the European Union which will reach Italy and which will also be invested in the green transition. But the main perspective of the ruling parties is to give it to the private companies so that they can like having this green transition. And we know what it means if it is given to the privates, it's greenwashing so they will use the public money just to greenwash themselves. We say no, we have to strengthen the public sector above all in the transport sector because the Germany showed it last month. They had like a very cheap free ticket for everyone, 9 euro per month to have public transport, access to public transport and a lot of people took public transport. They let the cars at home and also their emissions went down. So there is a very concrete way to fight against the ecological crisis all over the world and we say that we need to invest in the public to solve this problem. Italy has been gripped by political crisis since the 2018 general elections. All three coalition governments that have ruled the country since then fell due to internal conflicts and defections. After the 2018 general elections, the five-star movement lead coalition formed the government with Giuseppe Conte as prime minister and Matthew Salvini and Luigi Devallo as vice prime minister. In August 2019, Salvini withdrew support to the government leading to Conte's resignation. Following this, the five-star movement formed a new coalition government under the leadership of Conte with the support of the Democratic party. This government also fell in early 2021 when former prime minister Matthew Orenzi, the leader of the centrist Atalia Viva party withdrew support. Later in February 2021, Mario Draghi assumed the prime ministership of the government of national unity consisting of parties ranging from social democrats to the far right. However, Mario Draghi too had to resign after the five-star movement withdrew the support to the government. The five-star movement opposed parts of the economic stimulus package put forward by the Mario Draghi led government. The five-star movement had raised concerns over some proposals which were part of a financial package worth 23 billion euros. The package was earmarked to fight the cost of living crisis marked by a high-fueled crisis and soaring inflation. People across the country exhausted by the prolonged COVID-19 crisis are now also facing an unbearable cost of living crisis. Progressive sections of Italy, especially the left and trade unions, have been waging militant struggles against this. The crisis has been deemed to be a result of the years of austerity measures in the name of neoliberal economic policies. The elections will decide if there will be a continuation of the neoliberal policies of the previous governments.