In the first national election in five years, voters in Italy on Sunday sent a strong message in support of right-wing populism, anti-immigrant sentiment, and against the existing establishment.
The center-left, pro-Europe, and governing Democratic Party suffered its worst results ever in national elections, according to The New York Times (3/5/2018, p. A6). The exact proportion of the vote for the Democratic Party came in at 22.9%, according to the Wall Street Journal (3/5/2018, p. A6). The outcome of the election continued a trend in Europe, similar to the Brexit referendum approval in Britain two years ago, against a politically progressive vision of a United Europe. The Italian vote represented a major setback for the current Italian and European left and liberal parties and vision. Although the concept of the European Union was re-inforced by the re-taking of the reins of power by Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany after a close election almost six months ago, the Italian voters censured the idea by their selection of nationalist-leaning, populist parties.
Still, the prospects for an easy formation of a new government remained, for Italy at this time, "a muddle," according to the New York Times (3/5/2018). Lengthy negotiations taking potentially weeks or months could ensue, although the front-runner party turned out to be the Five Star Movement, with about one-third of the vote. In all, various populist parties won over 50% of the vote, according to the New York Times (3/5/2018).
All-in-all, the vote in Italy represents a challenge to the mainstream, regionalist and globalist, neo-liberal vision of the world, outlined both by conservatives and liberals in the mainstream establishment, in Europe and America. President Donald Trump's election and the Brexit vote in the United Kingdom, both in 2016, were two examples of this political trend, the challenge to the mainstream. Chancellor Angela Merkel, a conservative and defender of the EU, represents a continuation of the political center, in contrast. The European Union still stands, at this time, despite the Italian vote results, and while the political center may yield in Italy to a more right-wing, populist leadership, the center in Europe will have been challenged, but not as of yet brought down.
What this vote signals for the left in Italy, about whom I know of only the Democratic Party, from these news reports,-- this vote signals the need for the Left in Italy to return to the drawing board, and to come up with a new, more popular vision of exactly what a progressive politics would mean for Italy, Europe, and the world today.
That is political work all of us, particularly those of us on the Left, could benefit from.
--Nicholas Patti
Italian-American,
New York City,
USA
