Italian Elections: The Triumph of Populism
Dear Italy,
I write to you as the child growing up feeling more Italian than German, the 2006 World Cup poster of the Azzurri still hanging on my childhood’s bedroom door as of today and being embarrassed whenever her mother spoke to her in German in public.
I write to you as a teenager, driving her Vespa, eagerly learning about your incredible culture and history, while crushing on your boys, so smooth in their ways.
I write to you as the person I am today, calling Tuscany, with its soft hills, the Mediterranean, and the cypress alleys, my other home, unable to leave without bringing homemade pesto back to Spain.
I also write to you as the little girl who came to Italy aged 5, always towering above everyone else, who took a little longer to integrate, and saw how children that were from any culture other than European had an even harder time.
I write to you as the teenager, whose nickname in highschool was Duce, Hitler, Führer, with people jokingly greeting her with the nazi salute; who heard friends and their parents complain about how immigrants would take their jobs, although none of them would do most jobs that immigrants do; who had her friends mock her other friends, because they were Jewish and therefore the subject of too many jokes.
All of these things flew right over her head back then, because it was the norm, and it never seemed too odd.
Yet now, I write to you as a 22 year old woman who tells some of her friends, whether 20 or 30 years old, that she’s happily in love with a Moroccan only to find them make racist comments, some jokingly, but some meaning them, deep down. I write to you as the person who learns that internationally you’re not always seen as the fascinating place with great culture, food and people that she knew, but as a political joke; as the person who finds it harder and harder to defend her home, since she starts to clearly see all that was wrong in the past 16 years.
Dear Italy, you’ve been the country I grew up in, the country that shaped me, a country so full of beauty, home of people I call friends and family.
But the more I’ve grown up, the more people and different cultures I’ve gotten to know, the more I find myself to be disappointed.
Dear Italy, and dear Italians,
I want to be proud to be a part of you. Please wake up.
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The nationalistic and eurosceptic wave that has recently hit Europe is perfectly reflected in Italy’s election outcomes, held on Sunday 4th March.
The populist parties won more than half the vote, with the center-right coalition (formed by Lega, Forza Italia and Fratelli D’Italia) and the leftist Five Star Movement (M5S), obtaining 37% and 32.68% respectively.
Within the center-right coalition, there was a clear win for Matteo Salvini’s Lega, with 17.37%, followed by Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia with 14.01%. However, the former prime minister Berlusconi is not allowed to return to government until 2019 after being convicted of tax fraud in 2013.
Ex prime minister Matteo Renzi’s Democratic Party (PD) obtained 18.72%, and 22.85% with the rest of the center-left coalition. It was expected that it wouldn’t do well, but the result came out much worse for PD than predicted. It was the lowest voter turnout since 1948 (72.9%), and the PD certainly paid the price for that. Renzi, for the third time in two years, is forced to announce his resignation, which will be done after the first meeting of the new parliament.
In all of this it is important to know that no person under the age of 28 has ever had the opportunity to elect a government. After Berlusconi resigned in 2011, he was followed by Mario Monti, before a deadlock in the 2013 elections forced the president to form a coalition with Enrico Letta at the head. Letta then was quickly pushed aside in a palace coup by Matteo Renzi. Adding to this, 47% of Italians are considered functionally illiterate, which means that they cannot adequately read, write, and more importantly vote while having a deep understanding of what effects the latter parties’ policies will have on their lives.
M5S seemed to be the most simple choice for many Italians voting for the first time. Italian newspaper La Stampa had a few words for the very young leader, Luigi Di Maio: “Italians always want to make a new Italy while they themselves stay the same. They stay immobile and hope someone gets moving. They denigrate all governments while expecting them to do everything. And after a while they throw out the baby and keep the bathwater. The baby, Mr Di Maio, is you.”
M5S, led by 31-year-old Di Maio, and Lega, led by Salvini, are now in a race to form a government since the elections produced a hung parliament. The Five Star Movement is a populist, eurosceptic, anti-establishment party, formed in 2009 by comedian Beppe Grillo. They went from local to national in 2013, immediately being the biggest opposing party to the government. Their main concerns are high taxation, low income and lack of jobs, as unemployment is very high in the South, which has young voters complaining about nepotism. M5S is incredibly popular in the South, as their anti-corruption spirit is strong. Sicilian MP candidate for the M5S, Piera Aiello, won 51% of the votes, but was forced to hide her face throughout the campaign, since she has been a Mafia target ever since she witnessed two hitmen kill her husband in 1991.
The far-right Lega, which until recently was a regional party focused on northern Italy, started building a larger network in the center and south of Italy around 2014 after seeing the shift in concern from southern Italy towards external threats, such as the European Union and foreigners. Its politics are broadly nationalist, protectionist, very critical of the Euro, socially conservative and in opposition to gay marriage. Also, Salvini presents himself as “one of the people”, being one of the most active Italian politicians on social media.
Yet, these polar opposites agree on some key issues: both are very eurosceptic and both are part of the rising tide of anti-immigrant feeling, with Lega being the most vocal by far, and Di Maio calling Mediterranean rescue boats “sea taxis”. Paradoxically, there has been a 34% decrease in migrant arrivals by boat and crime by immigrants since 2016.
To form a government though, there will need to be an agreement between the elected parties in order to fill the seats in parliament. However, any coalition between the parties seems politically impossible, simply because they have clashing stances on too many key issues. M5S has refused to enter any coalitions in the past but will have to make deals in order to govern. The most worrying coalition for Europe would be M5S and Lega, and Renzi has stated that until his resignation there will be no chance of the PD forming a coalition with either of the two.
Currently, the country is split into three: M5S, the center-left coalition and the center-right. Sergio Mattarella, Italy’s president, might keep the centre-left government of Paolo Gentiloni in place, if there is no clear majority. This would allow more time to set up a temporary government and to organise new elections.
Italy and Europe will have to wait until March 23rd, when the new parliament will meet for the first time.
Only then will we more certainly know whether there will be a stable government soon.
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