Italian Parliamentary Elections: Far-Right Populists Seek to Take Advantage of Crises

Italians vote today for the Parliament, which determines which party will form the government led by a prime minister. The right-wing bloc of parties is favored to form a coalition government, as the main center-left party is only attracting a few parties to its left or the center, while the left-leaning populists, whose popularity has declined, are running on their own after bringing down the popular national unity government with which they had been in a coalition government. The right-wing bloc includes the center-right Forza Italia party of former Premier Silvio Berlusconi, the far-right anti-migrant Trumpist League party and another far-right party, the Brothers of Italy, with roots in a post-war fascist party. The Brothers are the largest party and the one whose leader will likely become prime minister. The Brothers, which are running about even with the center-left party, was the only major party in the opposition to the popular national unity government, and had helped bring it down with its bloc partners and the populists, yet will likely be the largest party in a majority government because the Italian election law favors coalitions and rewards the largest one with a bonus of seats to give it a majority. The post-fascist party has been trying to reassure Italians and Europeans that it is no longer fascist, despite its retention of its fascist symbol, its nativist anti-migrant platform and admiration for authoritarians. The leader of the Brothers has pledged to continue the unity government’s reforms that have been necessary for massive European Union pandemic recovery funding, to remain in the EU and to keep the euro as the Italian monetary unit, despite her past views and frequent criticism of the EU, to remain in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and to keep sanctions on Russia and continue sending arms to Ukraine, despite her bloc partner the League’s objections to the last two platform planks. The League’s leader was an admirer of Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin, the ex-Soviet intelligence officer trying to restore the Soviet Union before his full-scale invasion of Ukraine this year. Russia has been overtly interfering in Italy’s election by urging voters to punish governments for the economic sanctions on Russia, necessary to stop Russian aggression, that have led to inflation and slower economic growth, hoping to bring sympathetic parties to power. The League and Brothers’ leaders admire Hungary’s self-described “illiberal” autocrat. The likely incoming premier falsely claims that the Hungarian President won his re-election freely, which undermines confidence that her bloc will stand with the EU against authoritarianism and corruption in EU members Hungary and Poland and raises the question of whether she and her party have truly rejected fascism. Berlusconi’s party promises to anchor the bloc to Europe, NATO and the Atlantic alliance with the United States, with which Italy is a close ally, but his party is the smallest of the fractious bloc. Italy has a history of fractious coalitions being unable to complete their five-year terms without having to form new coalitions or submit to early elections, such as today’s. If the right-wing bloc wins a supermajority of parliamentary seats, they can amend the Constitution without having to submit the proposed amendments to referendum. They want the popular election of the President, instead of currently by an electoral college, while the center-left opposes the populist proposal, as it would give too much unchecked power to the people. Turnout is expected to be less than usual.