The vote of Italians abroad: an anomaly in the new Italian political landscape?

ABSTRACT

In the parliamentary elections of 2018, right-wing populism and anti-establishment politics profoundly reshaped Italy’s electoral geography and party system. The xenophobic Lega (League) and the anti-establishment Movimento 5 Stelle (Five-star Movement, M5s) made substantial electoral gains in the domestic constituencies, paving the way for a coalition government. Outside Italy, in the constituency for Italians resident abroad, the primacy of pro-system and pro-European parties continued to be affirmed. This article examines the extent to which the ex-patriot vote represented an anomalous feature of the new Italian political landscape. It demonstrates that the electoral behaviour of Italians resident abroad showed patterns of continuity with the past, amid important signs of change. The predominance of the moderate-progressive vote was challenged by the advancement of the anti-establishment and conservative forces. However, what the 2018 elections ultimately revealed, perhaps more than any other previous poll, are the existential challenges that this model of extraterritorial voting and representation now faces, including: low turnouts; allegations of electoral fraud; negative media coverage, and controversial changes to the electoral law, which gave momentum to proposals for constitutional reforms aiming at reducing the number of MPs representing constituencies abroad.

KEYWORDS:

• Italy
• voting behaviour
• parliamentary elections
• external vote

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The first and second categories include countries allowing their own citizens to vote respectively in and for home districts.

2. Up-to-date voting data at consular level have been drawn directly from the Archivio Storico delle Elezioni (see: https://elezionistorico.interno.gov.it/).

^3. Le Iene is a popular comedy and satirical show broadcast on Italia 1, one of the Mediaset commercial television networks.

Le Iene is a popular comedy and satirical show broadcast on Italia 1, one of the Mediaset commercial television networks.

^4. The new legislation was also intended as a form of moral compensation for the millions of expatriates and their descendants who had long felt neglected by the political elite of their native and ancestral country (Montacutelli 2003, 101; Colucci 2007, 164).

The new legislation was also intended as a form of moral compensation for the millions of expatriates and their descendants who had long felt neglected by the political elite of their native and ancestral country (Montacutelli 2003, 101; Colucci 2007, 164).

^5. See: http://www.senato.it/leg/18/BGT/Schede/Ddliter/testi/49285_testi.htm.

See: http://www.senato.it/leg/18/BGT/Schede/Ddliter/testi/49285_testi.htm.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Simone Battiston

Simone Battiston is Cassamarca Senior Lecturer of Italian Studies and History at Swinburne University of Technology, Australia. His research focuses on transnational politics, migration history, labour and artisan history. His publications include the co-edited book, with Stefano Luconi, Autopsia di un diritto politico. Il voto degli italiani all’estero nelle elezioni del 2018 (Accademia University Press, 2018).

Stefano Luconi

Stefano Luconi teaches US history in the Department of Historical and Geographical Sciences and the Ancient World at the University of Padua. His research interests focus on Italian migration to the United States, with particular attention to Italian Americans’ political experience and transformation of ethnic identity. His publications include The Italian-American Vote in Providence, Rhode Island, 1916-1948 (Madison, NJ:, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2004).