It is a strange country that risks killing off Europe having been one of its founding and most reliable members. To move away from the sterile politics of the past twenty years, Italy has to come up with something new - but what?
The rise of Grillo's 5 Star Movement marks Italy's ongoing disaffection towards its political caste. In the early 1990s, the Northern League gave voice to a similar feeling. But times have changed. Surfing on a wave of anti-politics with no sound political programme may be a dangerous strategy.
More widely, what the M5S’ success represents is a challenge to the approach to economic reform which has too often rewarded the rich responsible for the problems, while making the working classes pay for Europe’s economic mess.
More than a week after the elections, the situation in Italy is as hazy as ever, with no obvious way out of the political deadlock.
The chaos that followed the Italian elections might be the foretaste of bigger changes to come. But which ones?
With no clear winner emerging out of the election, a new era of uncertainty opens for Italian politics. How can the country get out of the post-electoral impasse?
In the wake of the Italian elections, this excerpt from ‘Stagioni del populismo italiano’ examines populism in Italy’s political past and present. How did Guglielmo Giannini’s Qualunquismo movement influence the most recent forms of populism: those of the former Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi,
The Italian election resulted in a deadlock with no clear winner. But while Italy is stuck between politics as usual and a sterile protest vote, the seeds of a ‘liberal revolution’ have discretely been sown. Could this mark the beginning of an Italian spring?
There is no telling what the outcome of today's remarkably uncertain Italian elections will be. But the real story might just be Beppe Grillo's Movimento 5 Stelle, which could become the third political force in the country, and set a model for others in Europe to follow.
More coordination and strategy are needed in Europe's response to the sinister signs of stolen revolution. The political-strategic impulse has come from the south in the past. In the current economic crisis this should be more the case, not less.
As Italy is heading to the polls on Sunday for ‘the most important election in 30 years’, the vote of Italians living abroad will partly determine the formation of the next government. How do these expats feel about Italian politics, and how are they going to vote?
