The 2022 general Italian elections. The long-awaited victory of the right

ABSTRACT

The 2022 Italian parliamentary elections had an announced winner: the centre-right coalition led by Giorgia Meloni’s party (Fratelli d’Italia [F.d.I.]). Despite the low level of competitiveness, caused mainly by divisions in the centre-left camp, and the high predictability of the election outcome, the elections have had profound consequences for the Italian party system and also for decision-making within the European Union. In addition to providing a detailed analysis of the electoral results of the 2022 elections, the article will focus on the process that led, in a short period of time, to the formation of the new government led, for the first time in Italy”s history, by a woman and, above all, composed predominantly of far-right parties with a populist or sovereigntist attitude. Finally, in the concluding section the article will reflect on the ‘historical’ significance of these elections for the Italian political system, highlighting possible elements of tension for the democratic regime and for the relationship with other E.U. member-states.

RIASSUNTO

Le elezioni politiche italiane del 2022 avevano un vincitore annunciato: la coalizione di centro-destra guidata dal partito di Giorgia Meloni (Fratelli d’Italia [F.d.I.]). Nonostante il basso livello di competitività, causato soprattutto dalle divisioni nel campo del centro-sinistra, e l’alta prevedibilità dell’esito elettorale, le elezioni hanno prodotto conseguenze profonde per il sistema partitico italiano e anche per le dinamiche decisionali interne all’Unione Europea. Oltre a fornire una prima dettagliata analisi dei risultati elettorali delle elezioni parlamentari del 2022, l’articolo si concentrerà sulle dinamiche che hanno portato, in breve tempo, alla formazione del nuovo governo guidato, per la prima volta nella storia d’Italia, da una donna e, soprattutto, composto in prevalenza da partiti di estrema destra con accenti populisti o sovranisti. Infine, nella sezione conclusiva l’articolo rifletterà sul significato ‘storico’ di queste elezioni per il sistema politico italiano, mettendo in luce i possibili elementi di tensione per il regime democratico e per le relazioni con gli altri partner europei.

KEYWORDS:

• Italian elections
• voting behaviour
• radical right
• electoral systems
• parliamentary democracy

PAROLE CHIAVE:

• elezioni italiane
• comportamento elettorale
• destra radicale
• sistemi elettorali
• democrazia parlamentare

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. These parties were finally joined by a minor list from the centre, called Noi moderati (We moderates).

^2. For useful additional details, see Pasquino (2020).

^3. On this sore point see: Pasquino and Valbruzzi (2012), McDonnell and Valbruzzi (2014) and, more broadly, Bertsou and Caramani (2020).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gianfranco Pasquino

Gianfranco Pasquino is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Bologna and Senior Adjunct Professor at the Bologna Center of the Johns Hopkins University. Fellow of the Accademia dei Lincei, his most recent books are Libertà inutile. Profilo ideologico dell’Italia repubblicana (UTET 2021) and Tra scienza e politica. Una autobiografia (UTET 2022). He has co-edited The Oxford Handbook of Italian Politics (Oxford University Press 2015) and the Dizionario di Politica (UTET-De Agostini 2016, 4a ed., revised) and co-authored (with Riccardo Pelizzo), The Culture of Accuntability. A Democratic Virtue (Routledge 2022).

Marco Valbruzzi

Marco Valbruzzi is Assistant Professor at the University of Naples Federico II and Adjunct Professor at the Gonzaga University in Florence. He is the author of Primarie. Partecipazione e leadership (Bononia University Press, 2005) and co-editor, with G. Pasquino, of Il potere dell’alternanza. Teorie e ricerche sui cambi di governo (Bononia University Press, 2011). His most recent books are Collective Leadership and Divided Power in West European Parties (with D. Campus and N. Switek, Palgrave 2021) and Come votano le periferie. Comportamento elettorale e disagio sociale nelle città italiane (Il Mulino, 2021).