This September 25, Italians are called to the polls. Surveys indicate that the extreme right can take over the Government and the post-fascist Giorgia Meloni she can become the prime minister of the country. The coalition led by the radical leader prevails in the polls. The leader shares a list with Matteo Salvini Y Silvio Berlusconi.
Meanwhile, the complex Italian political panorama is discouraging for the space on the left. This block arrives with little mobilizing capacity and fragmented to the elections this Sunday. On the one hand, it is the list of the Democratic Party (PD)led by Enrico Letta; on the other, there is the Third Pole, a coalition of matthew renzi Y Carlo Calenda.
The formation led by Giuseppe Conte, the undefined 5 Star Movement, plays in this campaign with the trump card of having been a government party. Something that combines with the populist attitude that has characterized this formation since it was born.
The extreme right, united
Although the joint list of Meloni, Salvini and Berlusconi has been blessed by Brussels and presents itself as a center-right coalition, the main actors of this grouping have not exactly stood out for their moderation. The formation of Giorgia Meloni, Fratelli d’Italia, has fascist roots as some of its leaders come from the Italian Social Movement (MSI), founded by the followers of Benito Mussolini. Its leader participated in the Vox campaign in Andalusia, with a nationalist, nativist and xenophobic discourse.
The other column in this group is Matteo Salviniformer Italian Interior Minister and leader of The league. With a strong radical discourse, his party was the second most voted in the 2018 elections. The far-right party entered the Government and deployed an anti-immigration policy and did not hesitate to launch a battle against the work of the NGO Open Arms to rescue people from the drift in the Mediterranean and transfer them to the Italian coast.
Silvio Berlusconi, of Forza Italia, is the other actor in this tripolar space. He has been president of Italy from 2001 to 2005 and from 2008 to 2011. Like donald trumpBerlusconi is a great tycoon in his country. The president of the Mediaset communication group has also been characterized by his rudeness to the press and his clearly macho behavior.
Democrats and progressives
This centre-left alliance is led by Enrico Letta, general secretary of the Democratic Party (PD). For less than a year he was prime minister of the country until he was ousted by matthew renzi, who lobbied for the job and eventually succeeded. Letta has always maintained an excessively moderate profile to the point that she embraced the neoliberal agenda, promoting a privatization plan during her brief mandate and advocating more “free markets.”
Also present in this group are angelo bonelli (Green Europe), Nicola Fratoianni (Italian Left), Luigi Di Maio (Civic Engagement) and Emma Bonino (More Europe). Therefore, the bloc is made up of an amalgamation of moderate, liberal and center-left parties.
The Third Pole
This coalition is made up of Living Italy and by Action, led by Matteo Renzi and Carlo Calenda respectively. These two leaders were part of the Democratic Party, but ended up deserting it to start their own political projects. The political tendency of these two parties is center-left and could electorally harm the group of Democrats and progressives by fragmenting the vote in this space and not achieving greater mobilization.
5 Star Movement
The 5 Star Movement was the winner of the 2018 elections. At that time, the list was led by Luigi Di Maio —now in Civic Engagement—. Now, former Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte is the one who directs the formation. It is a party with a difficult fit on the left-right axis, since it has managed to govern (in a very unstable way) with the League first and with the Democratic Party later.