The date for the next political elections is set for 4 March 2018. This is the hypothesis that various Italian newspapers are talking about today. In this scenario, the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, should dissolve the Chambers on December 27th.
The end of the legislature three months earlier than the natural deadline aims to safeguard the government from any parliamentary hitch following the approval of the budget law.
In short, the Executive must not arrive crippled at the elections. The reason? It is by no means certain that a majority capable of governing the country will emerge from the polls, therefore it cannot be excluded that Gentiloni's team will be forced to stay in the saddle longer than expected, at least for current affairs.
Therefore Gentiloni will not go up to the Quirinale by resigning his mandate, he will simply declare his task "exhausted". In this way, continuity of government action will be guaranteed if a well-defined majority does not emerge from the polls or the times for the formation of the majority in parliament turn out to be longer than expected.
