All the world mourns Mario Draghi as Italian Prime Minister.

A part of the world demonizes his alleged successor Giorgia Meloni.

Both are nonsense: Draghi wasn't the messiah and Meloni isn't the she-devil.

With Sunday's elections, Italy has returned to political normality.

There has been a shift to the right, but no political earthquake catastrophe that would shake democracy in Italy and jeopardize the future of Europe.

The former head of the ECB has done a good job during his year and a half as head of the 67th post-war government.

The economy picked up again after the lockdown imposed by politicians during the pandemic, tax revenue rose and national debt fell.

According to all surveys, the people were satisfied with their head of government, who led the country out of the crisis with a sure hand and earned Italy respect in Europe and the world.

Draghi's crisis alliance was not designed to last

But the people had never chosen the non-party economist for the highest government office in an election, rather Draghi had been appointed by President Sergio Mattarella as a savior in need.

Draghi took all the relevant parties, from the left to the center to the right, into his coalition and into political responsibility.

It has long been known that such a crisis alliance of "national unity" is not designed to last, that Draghi, in his own words, is not available for another term.

The fall of the Draghi government nine months before the end of the legislative period was not a populist coup, but a first step in returning to the constitutional process of democratic decision-making and government formation.

Sunday's early elections were another milestone on this journey.

The democratic sovereign has commissioned a national-bourgeois government to determine the fate of the country.

Draghi himself put it most clearly that the outcry before the elections about a threat to democracy in Italy, the country leaving the EU and a relapse into authoritarian darkness was a campaign of fear fueled by particular party political interests.

Speaking in a sort of legacy speech in late August, he said: "I am convinced that the next government, whatever its political persuasion, will rise to today's challenges, no matter how insurmountable they may seem."

In fact, the challenges facing the incoming government are even greater than those faced by the outgoing one.

Like most EU countries, Italy is still on the downward path in the energy crisis, inflation and recession.

When Draghi took office a good year and a half ago, the country had already begun its ascent from the pandemic trough.

The prime minister-designate has promised that if the president is asked to form a government, she will take on this task “on behalf of all Italians” and “promote what unites and not what divides”.

Meloni cannot afford a culture war

It has to, because the new government has little political and even less financial leeway.

In total, the left camp is almost as strong as the right.

There should be no culture war, such as the right to abortion, which 70 percent of Italians support.

But Meloni will continue to resist the left-wing milieu's striving for socio-cultural hegemony and will unashamedly cling to her conservative triad of values ​​"God, family, fatherland".

Governments led by Meloni's party in the central Italian regions of Abruzzo and Marche have been pursuing a pragmatic, economically liberal policy there since 2019, which could become the blueprint for the future coalition in Rome.

In order to master the crisis, Italy needs around 200 billion euros from the EU's reconstruction fund.

In renegotiations with Brussels, the new government in Rome will try to achieve a partial reallocation of funds from the green vision to acute emergency aid, but will probably not provoke a confrontation about fundamental issues.

A Meloni government would have to continue many of the reforms initiated by Draghi.

You have to make Meloni promise that any government she leads will "not do crazy things" - if only because otherwise there is a risk of a potentially catastrophic financial and currency crisis.

Meloni has expressly distanced itself from the fantastic election promises made by its alliance partners Matteo Salvini and Silvio Berlusconi and has refused to take on any more debt.

The threatening debt burden of 150 percent of annual economic output will have to be paid off by Italians of all world views at some point, especially the young, of whom there are fewer and fewer.

Above all, this determines the normality to which Italy is returning after an overheated election campaign.