Italy - September 2022

The coalition that consists of two far-right political parties, Giorgia Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) and Matteo Salvini’s Lega (League), as well as former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right Forza Italia, have won 44 per cent of the vote in the snap general election held on 25 September. Although Fratelli d’Italia was the top vote-getter, the failure of the fragmented left to form a coalition was a key factor that led to the (far-)right’s victory. Fratelli d’Italia was founded after World War II by Mussolini supporters, and while Meloni has stated that the party doesn’t have any connection with the fascist rhetoric anymore, critics worry that the party still includes fascist supporters. Meloni has particularly promised to defend “traditional family” and has targeted the “LGBT lobby,” immigrants and what she called an “Islamist violence” and “bureaucrats of Brussels.” The voter turnout was 64 per cent (nine points lower than the 2018 election), Italy’s lowest ever turnout for a general election.

Sources: BBC, Washington Post, ANSA