The Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi has been firmly in the saddle since he took office ten months ago.

The former ECB boss holds his broad coalition - from the left-wing populist five-star movement to the social democrats and several small parties right and left of the center to the right-wing national Lega - together with political skill and determined reins.

Matthias Rüb

Political correspondent for Italy, the Vatican, Albania and Malta based in Rome.

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Draghi's government alliance has a good four-fifths of the votes in each of the two chambers of parliament;

the only parliamentary opposition force of any significant size is the post-fascist “Brothers of Italy” party.

According to surveys, more than two thirds of Italians are satisfied with the work of their 74-year-old Prime Minister.

Draghi should also survive the “crisis month” of October well and even stronger.

The storm of protest and blockade announced by some trade unions and fascist splinter groups against Draghi's introduction of the 3-G obligation in the whole of working life on October 15 was little more than a breeze.

On Monday, the police cleared some blockades at the entrances to the port of Trieste that workers and activists had set up in protest against the certificate requirement.

Grumbling about robust action against vaccine skeptics

For two working days it has now been the case for the whole of Italy that all 23 million workers and employees in private and public companies have to use the so-called “Green Pass” to prove that they have been vaccinated, recovered or tested (negative).

Otherwise they are not allowed to go to their place of work and receive no salary.

This "quantum leap" in the fight against pandemics, which no other western country has made, was achieved almost silently by Draghi.

There was grumbling in the coalition and in society as a whole because of the extremely robust approach against vaccine skeptics: These are in fact excluded from social life, unless they pay 15 euros every third day for any corona tests.

The social partners also argued over who should pay for the tests, which unvaccinated workers and employees have to undergo two to three times a week.

Draghi denied unions' demands that companies and employers pay the cost of testing because it would undermine the general incentive to vaccinate or the unspoken obligation to vaccinate.

In general, Draghi stuck to the “hard line” he has followed since he took office on February 13, according to which vaccination alone “opens the way to freedom and security” for everyone and the whole country.

The government continues to aim for 90 percent of the population over the age of twelve to be fully vaccinated by the beginning of winter.

Achievements for Social Democrats

On Monday, this proportion was a good 81 percent, just under 86 percent had been vaccinated at least once. The outcome of the local elections on October 3rd and 4th as well as the casting votes due - for example in Rome and Trieste - on Sunday and Monday can be read as confirmation of Mario Draghi's government policy.

After a long crisis, the Social Democrats made an impressive comeback under their new party leader Enrico Letta. In the five most important races - for the mayor's post in the regional metropolises of Bologna, Naples, Milan, Rome and Trieste - social democratic candidates or those supported by the social democrats were able to prevail almost everywhere. Draghi himself is non-party, but the Social Democrats are closest to him politically - and they are the most determined supporters of his government work. Therefore, Draghi can personally feel like the winner in the first elections since he took office.

Still, there is a shadow of uncertainty about Draghi's mandate in government.

In February, after seven years, the term of office of President Sergio Mattarella ends, and the 80-year-old president has indicated that he does not want a limited extension and certainly not a full second mandate.

It is uncertain whether Draghi himself will move to the presidential palace as Mattarella's successor or remain prime minister until the end of the legislative period in spring 2023 and thus retain the actual government powers.

The best guarantee for political stability in both posts would be Mario Draghi from February 2022.

But he can only dress one.