Lessons From Italy’s Recent Election
The happiest days of my year are those when I am living and working in Italy. I enjoy a sense of community and depth of friendship that is so hard to find within our hard-charging American culture. My Italian friends taught me to value the sanctity of meals, to prize time with friends over time at work. Most especially, they helped me see that I can pause to care for myself and still be productive.
So it was with a heavy heart that I watched the results of last week’s Italian parliamentary election that brought to power a coalition of far-right parties. Normally I would cheer the election of a female head of state, but I cannot rejoice over Giorgia Meloni’s all but assured assent as prime minister. Her Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) Party arises from the dregs of post-war neo-fascism.
Meloni has spoken out against the rights of LGBT citizens, taken a hard line against migrants, promoted a nationalist “Italy First” agenda and criticized the European Union, which has benefited Italy financially for the past 30 years.
The Fratelli d’Italia symbol is the same tri-colored flame associated with Benito Mussolini’s Fascist government. Meloni has floated the idea of giving financial incentives to encourage Italians to have more children, thereby adding to the native population. This is a policy right out of the Mussolini era, which also barred Italians from marrying Jews and Africans. Need I say more?
The election results seem to go against the generous and hospitable spirit of the Italians that I know. A closer look, however, tells a more nuanced story. True, Meloni’s party garnered the biggest share of the proportional vote, but it was still only 26 percent.
La Lega (The League) and Forza Italia (Forward Italy), led by digraced former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi — the two other major parties of the right — gained only 9 percent and 8 percent of the vote respectively.
Herein is the lesson for those of us in the U.S. What assured the right wing coalition’s win was that 36 percent of eligible Italian voters sat out the election. In the southern region of Calabria, 50 percent of those eligible to vote stayed home from the polls.
Italians’ frustration with all political parties is obvious. But if you choose not to participate in the system, you just might end up with a government unworthy of governing.
Another reason so many Italians failed to vote is that they believe what a handful of career politicians do in Rome will have little effect on their daily lives. There will still be morning chiacchiere (chit chat) over cups of espresso in the coffee bars. There still will be long, languid Sunday dinners with extended family and evening strolls along the piazzas.
Still, Italians face serious times ahead. Already sanctions against Russia, from which Italy gets a large portion of its grain and natural gas, have sent food and energy prices skyrocketing. Italy will need strong leadership to weather the coming months. Sadly, it has elected a party that has known only how to be in opposition. Its ability to govern is untested.
That, though, might be a point of hope. An inexperienced set of leaders is usually an incompetent set of leaders, which might mean this fragile right- wing ruling coaliton will be short-lived. Most governing coalitions in Italy last on average less than two years before collapsing. I predict much the same for Meloni’s coalition poised to seize power.
The coming months just might give the vast majority of Italians enough time to come to their senses and demand better from their leaders. My hope is that the generous spirit that I’ve witnessed in so many of my Italian friends will be the ultimate victor.
