Welcome to this week's Eurointelligence podcast.

With me are Susanna Muncheng and Jack Smith.

Now, today we want to talk about two towering figures of European politics,

Mario Draghi and Emmanuel Macron.

Mario Draghi, perhaps, will become Italy's president.

It's not clear. Italian politics is at the moment very

difficult to read, but there is a certain probability or possibility that he might be elected

president at the electoral Congress that starts next week. Jack, you've been covering the story.

What do you think is the significance of Draghi

ascending to the Quirinal Palace? So, kind of focusing on the shorter-term implications first,

I think the significance is really going to depend on what kind of, I guess, agreement in terms of the government

is going to accompany that possible scenario. My kind of still standing belief is that the

parliamentarians will not elect Draghi unless there's a backup option that will ensure the continuity

of the legislature. And so really, that's going to depend on the kind of deal that comes out in terms of whether

it's kind of a political leader, another technocrat, who's part of it.

There, of course, is a greater risk of instability.

But again, I would just kind of caution everybody that this is a

legislature that in its majority wants to continue if for no other reason than a lot of people's

job security. So that's important to keep in mind when you look at the short-term implications.

No, absolutely. The next parliament will be smaller. And the polls are suggesting that Fyfeste, in particular, we lose a lot of Cs.

The combined effect would not even be properly described by decimation.

This would be a very, very significant culling of senators and MPs from that party in particular.

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