Legislative elections in Italy: Turnout drops sharply

The post-fascist Fratelli d’Italia party, led by Giorgia Meloni, won Italy’s legislative elections on Sunday, an unprecedented feat since 1945, according to exit polls.

Voter turnout in Italy’s legislative elections this Sunday, where the post-fascist Fratelli d’Italia party led by Giorgia Meloni came out on top, was unprecedented since 1945, according to exit polls.

According to the Home Ministry, voter turnout at 7:00 pm was 50%, an eight-point drop from the 2018 assembly elections.

This decline is particularly marked in the southern regions of the peninsula (-12 points), which four years ago contributed massively to the victory of the 5-Star Movement, an anti-establishment formation still in 2019 “credited with establishing a minimum citizen.” income” to the poor.

House of Representatives and Senate

In opposition to all successive governments since the 2018 legislative elections, Fratelli d’Italia (FdI) has positioned itself as the main alternative and has gone from 4.3% of the vote four years ago to a quarter (between 22nd and 26th). %), according to the first opinion polls, became the leading party in the country.

Its coalition with the other far-right League of Matteo Salvini and Silvio Berlusconi’s conservative Forza Italia should win up to 47% of the vote and, with a complicated game of constituencies, ensure an outright victory. A majority of seats in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

If the results are confirmed, the Italian Center for Electoral Studies (CISE) noted that the FdI and the League would together win “the highest percentage of votes ever recorded by far-right parties in the history of Western Europe from 1945 to the present day”.

At the end of 2012, the organization founded by Giorgia Meloni with dissidents of Berlusconism led Enrico Letta’s Democratic Party (PD), which failed to get a useful vote to fend off the far-right and won only 17 to 21%.

“Write History”

Fratelli d’Italia owes its success to the broken promises of its opponents and the “doom” winds blowing across the peninsula to the charisma of its leader.

This 45-year-old Roman, who, as a young activist, admired Mussolini, managed to demonize Mussolini’s image and unite the fear and anger of millions of Italians in his name. Neglect of public services.

“Today you can help make history,” he tweeted to his followers on Sunday.

Whatever the outcome of the elections, the Italian government won’t take office until the end of October, and its path is already fraught with risks and leaves little room for maneuver. In particular, he must manage a crisis caused by soaring inflation, while Italy is already crumbling under a debt that represents 150% of GDP, the highest ratio in the eurozone behind Greece.

In a country with chronic government instability, experts already agree that the short lifespan of a successful alliance is a marriage of convenience between three partners with competing ambitions.

Giorgia Meloni, with no government experience other than a short stint in the Ministry of Youth (2008-2011), will have to do a lot to manage her complex, highly experienced allies: Silvio Berlusconi has been head of government for several times and Matteo Salvini, Minister of the Interior and Deputy Prime Minister.

In the Ukrainian file, allies of Europe and NATO member Italy will also examine the distribution of portfolios between the three parties. Because Georgia Meloni is an Atlanticist and supports sanctions against Moscow, Mr. Salvini opposes them.