ROME: Italy’s President Sergio Mattarella dissolved parliament Thursday, triggering early elections which could bring the hard right to power after the country’s warring parties toppled reformer Prime Minister Mario Draghi.

Elections will take place on September 25, a government source told AFP, while the internationally-respected Draghi will stay on as head of government until then.

Dissolving parliament was always a last resort, Mattarella said, but in this case a lack of consensus among the parties that had made up Draghi’s national unity government made it “inevitable”.

Italy was facing major challenges, however, that could not be put on the backburner while the parties campaigned, he said.

There could be no “pauses in the essential interventions to combat the effects of the economic and social crisis and in particular the rise in inflation”.