Introduction

ABSTRACT

Politics in Italy in 2019 revealed a series of discontinuities as well continuities with regard to previous years. The discontinuities were clear: two populist parties – the League and the Five-star Movement – gained power with a platform of radical promises on the social and economic front, even if one of them, the League, left the government prematurely (a sign of its growing electoral strength in the country), allowing the centre-left Democratic Party, which had dominated Italian governing coalitions from 2013, to return to power in Conte II. The continuities were no less obvious: the populist government’s radical promises were substantially 'normalized' due to inescapable macroeconomic constraints and the debt policing powers of the European authorities (‘radicalism meets reality’), as well as barely concealed or open conflict over policy priorities among the coalition partners (‘radicalisms in competition’).

KEYWORDS:

• Italy
• populism
• Five-star Movement
• League

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. ‘Italy’s faltering economy will put populists’ plans to the test’, www.ft.com, 31 January 2019, accessed 21 February 2020.

2. As reported in ‘Italy budget deficit forecast to smash EU fiscal rules’, www.ft.com, 7 May 2019, accessed 21 February 2020.

3. ‘Italy’s populists attack central bank and regulator’, www.ft.com, 10 February 2019, accessed 21 February 2020.

4. ‘Italy’s populists attack central bank and regulator’, www.ft.com, 10 February 2019, accessed 21 February 2020.

5. ‘Matteo Salvini accuses France of “stealing” Africa’s wealth’, www.ft.com, 22 January 2019, accessed 21 February 2020.

6. ‘Xi Jinping welcomes Italy’s plan to join China’s “belt and road” drive’, www.ft.com, 20 March 2019, accessed 21 February 2020.

7. The M5s called on its members to support Salvini because his actions were taken in his capacity as interior minister and were supported by the Government as a whole.

8. ‘EU set to pause budget crackdown on Italy’, www.ft.com, 24 June 2019, accessed 25 February 2020.

9. As reported in ‘Tension in Italy coalition fuels talk of potential split’, www.ft.com, 15 May 2019, accessed 25 February 2020.

10. ‘Italy’s ruling parties take aim at economy ministry over mini-BOTs’, www.reuters.com, 9 June 2019, accessed 25 February 2020.

11. Governo Italiano, Ministero dell’Interno, Archivio storico delle elezioni, Available at https://elezionistorico.interno.gov.it.

12. See, for instance, the interview of former PD Secretary, Dario Franceschini in Corriere della Sera: M. T. Meli, ‘Franceschini (Pd): «Il M5S diverso dalla Lega. Insieme possiamo difendere certi valori»’, www.corriere.it, 22 July 2019, accessed 20 February 2020.

13. ‘Italy’s dapper Conte grows in stature after hesitant start’, www.reuters.com, 5 September 2019, accessed 20 February 2020.

14. Politico Italia, ‘Poll of Polls: National parliament voting intention’, https://www.politico.eu/europe-poll-of-polls/italy/.

15. Politico Italia, ‘Poll of Polls: National parliament voting intention’, https://www.politico.eu/europe-poll-of-polls/italy/.

16. Programma del Governo della Repubblica per il prosieguo della XVIII legislatura, 4 September 2019, Available at

http://www.astrid-online.it/static/upload/prog/programma-governo-4-settembre-2019.pdf.

17. ‘Italy’s cabinet approves 2020 budget that cuts taxes, targets evaders’, www.reuters.com, 15 October 2019, accessed 25 February 2020.

18. ‘Italy counts the cost of its brain drain’, www.ft.com, 8 November 2019, accessed 25 February 2020.

19. ‘Italy registers lowest number of births since at least 1861ʹ, www.ft.com, 3 July 2019, accessed 25 February 2020.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Manuela Moschella

Manuela Moschella is Associate Professor of International Political Economy at the Scuola Normale Superiore.

Martin Rhodes

Martin Rhodes is Distinguished University Professor at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver, Denver, Colorado, USA.