Snap Italian Parliamentary Elections Mark Right-Wing Surge
A right-wing coalition won parliamentary elections in Italy on September 25. Giorgia Meloni will head the new government, becoming Italy’s first female prime minister (Flickr).
Giorgia Meloni of Fratelli d’Italia, or Brothers of Italy, is set to become Italy’s first female prime minister following a dramatic victory by the Italian right-wing coalition in snap parliamentary elections on August 25. The right-wing coalition received almost 44 percent of the vote, with Fratelli d’Italia securing 26 percent– the largest vote share of any party. Coalition members Fratelli d’Italia, Lega, Forza Italia, and Noi Moderati agreed on Giorgia Meloni to head the incoming right-wing government as prime minister.
Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s resignation and Italian President Sergio Mattarella’s subsequent dissolution of the parliament necessitated the September elections, which fell six months shy of the end of the parliament’s five-year term. Draghi’s pandemic unity government collapsed when populist 5 Star Movement President Guiseppe Conte, Nationalist League Head Matteo Salvini, and former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Forza Italia revoked their support in a vote of confidence in July 2022. The fall of Draghi’s government is emblematic of recent Italian governments’ instability and tendency to dissolve. Although the last parliamentary elections took place in 2018, three different Italian governments have held power during the current parliamentary term.
However, the results of the September 25 vote are historic beyond Meloni’s ascension. The new governing coalition will be the most right wing Italian government since that of Benito Mussolini. Evolved from neo-Fascist roots after Mussolini’s death, the Fratelli d’Italia party touts hardline policies on immigration, the economy, and the European Union. However, Meloni has been careful to moderate her party’s image, appealing to more moderate right-wing policies while staunchly opposed to all previous governments. Fratelli d’Italia has walked back its opposition to the euro and supports NATO and Ukraine in the war against Russia. This mainstreaming attempt achieved electoral success in 2022. After winning just four percent of the vote in the 2018 parliamentary elections, Fratelli d’Italia is now the Italian parliament’s largest party.
Other European countries have expressed concerns about an Italian government headed by Meloni and the Fratelli d’Italia. Supporters of the European Union fear that Meloni will renege on her mainstreaming shift once her governing coalition secures power and return to her former Eurosceptic– and possibly fascist– rhetoric. Meloni has famously derided the bureaucratic nature of the European Union and the idea of European integration on a whole. Moreover, she is known for her support of illiberal democratic leaders such as Victor Orban of Hungary and Marine Le Pen of France’s National Front. Regardless of how Meloni plans to respond to the financial and security crises that have arisen during the war in Ukraine, the Fratelli d’Italia’s snap election success marks yet another electoral victory for the far right in Western Europe. Just weeks after another far-right success in Sweden’s parliamentary elections, right-wing populism again proves itself a force to be reckoned with—this time, in Italy.