It’s an index of the Left’s impotence that its main hope of stopping Matteo Salvini today lies in some sort of institutional “fix” to prevent early elections. After Salvini’s Lega pulled out of its coalition with the Five Star Movement (M5s) on Thursday, Italy looks likely to face a fresh general election this October, in which the hard-right party could win over 35 percent of the vote. With the Lega near-guaranteed victory, the slim prospect of Salvini not becoming premier depends on President Sergio Mattarella creating some sort of “stopgap” technocratic cabinet.

The immediate future looks grim for whoever doesn’t want to see Salvini fulfill his bid to secure what he calls “full powers.” Having led all polls since last summer, his nationalist Lega has continued to expand its influence, entering new regions and securing over one-third of votes in this May’s European elections. Current premier Giuseppe Conte, an independent, claims that Salvini openly told him he planned to crash the M5S-Lega coalition in order to “cash in” his poll lead. But the Lega’s confidence especially owes to the feebleness of the opposition.

That’s not to say that everything is going Salvini’s way — after all, in July evidence emerged that the Lega had sought funds from Russian oil oligarchs. In a further revelation of Russian ties, documents emerged showing that at the ambassador’s instigation Salvini ordered picket lines outside Moscow-based firms to be broken up.