Monday is "Ferragosto", the high festival of the holiday season on the Catholic holiday of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.

And Italy is in the middle of the election campaign in the middle of summer.

This has not happened since the founding of the republic in 1946.

Elections were always between February and June.

Now the prematurely dissolved parliament will be re-elected on September 25th.

Neither politicians nor pollsters know what the voters will do with the "under the parasol" campaign.

Will the weariness of politics continue to grow?

Will fewer people vote?

Matthias Rub

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

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Enrico Letta fired a kind of starting signal for the hot phase of the election campaign.

It was also a broadside by the leader of the Social Democrats against Giorgia Meloni, leader of the Fratelli d'Italia (Brothers of Italy) party.

Letta accused Meloni of "changing her appearance, powdering herself".

But she won't get away with the fraudulent labeling, you can also see Viktor Orbán's ally under the make-up.

Meloni responds to "dear Letta" with the counter-accusation that he has outed himself as misogynist with the metaphor of powdering: apparently women should "take care of make-up and handbags" instead of politics.

Secondly, the position of the Italian brothers in foreign and security policy is "crystal clear and coherent": The "Northern Star" for reliable orientation is "the defense of Italy's national interests".

And one certainly does not accept advice from alleged advocates of the transatlantic partnership, who at the same time bring “radical leftists with Soviet nostalgia” on board.

"We don't need powder, while you can't even cover your contradictions with putty," Meloni glared back.

Up to 40 percent still undecided

The background to the polemics between the duelists for the highest government office is, on the one hand, the electoral alliance that Letta has concluded with the party Sinistra Italiana (Italian Left) under Nicola Fratoianni.

The Left leader was a member of the orthodox Communist Refoundation Party for 17 years.

After the collapse of the Moscow-loyal Italian Communist Party in 1991, they wanted to continue marching with the hammer and sickle.

The price of Letta's alliance with the radical left was the withdrawal of the left-liberal Azione party led by former Economy Minister Carlo Calenda from the Letta alliance.

On the other hand, Letta's powder attack against Meloni referred to their recent international media offensive.

With 24 percent approval in the polls, Meloni's brothers in Italy are one percentage point ahead of Letta's social democrats.

In addition, with Matteo Salvini's right-wing Lega (14 percent) and Silvio Berlusconi's Christian Democratic Forza Italia (eight percent), Meloni has two very powerful and loyal allies.

Letta lacks such partners on the left and especially in the political center, despite violently hectic campaigning in many directions.

Some pollsters and political scientists believe that Letta has little chance of catching up with Meloni in the race to the Palazzo Chigi, the prime minister's official residence.

Although up to 40 percent of voters are still undecided.

In any case, Meloni, lightly powdered and very confident, sat in front of a camera and had a video message recorded in English, French and Spanish and then distributed.

"They say my party wins the September elections would be a disaster, lead to an authoritarian turn, Italy leaving the euro and other nonsense of that kind," Meloni said.

There is nothing true about these lies spread by "a powerful media circle of the left".