Italy's Right Turn Is About Cultural Issues
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Loading... - Emilia Salo
- 11 Oct 2022
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Giorgia Meloni will be Italy’s first woman Prime Minister and first right-wing leader since WWII. But just how radical will Meloni’s government be?
The Altamar team explored the significance of the Italian election with Erik Jones, director of the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute.
While this election result was expected, it represents a historic shift in Italian politics. We asked how the country could transition so quickly from [former Prime Minister] Mario Draghi to this new right-wing government.
“Everybody loved Mario Draghi, and yet, a significant plurality of the population voted for a governing coalition that represents the opposite of what Mario Draghi represents. It becomes a majority if you include the Five Star Movement, which is what brought down Draghi’s government. So, in that sense, the country seems to be ready to move on,” explained Erik Jones.
The Left Needs to Work Together
The elections dramatically reduced the parliamentary seats of center and center-left parties. What do these parties need to do to come back after this?
Jones said, “What they need to do is work together. If the Five Star Movement and the Democratic Party, and Action — Italia Viva — which is the centrist group — had worked together, they would’ve been a block every bit as large as the right-wing block that won. And the only reason that Giorgia Meloni has this huge majority in both chambers of Parliament is because the left refused to work together. The person who’s being regarded in the electorate as most responsible for that failure is the outgoing leader of the Democratic Party, Enrico Letta.” Read More...
