Political disaffection drives the Meloni Executive in Italy

The elections that were held on Sunday and Monday in the Italian regions of Lazio and Lombardy brought good news to the right-wing coalition led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, which won in both territories, but not for democratic health in the country.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
14 February 2023 Tuesday 21:24
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Political disaffection drives the Meloni Executive in Italy

The elections that were held on Sunday and Monday in the Italian regions of Lazio and Lombardy brought good news to the right-wing coalition led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, which won in both territories, but not for democratic health in the country. . Only 40% of the thirteen million people summoned to the polls went to vote, the lowest participation ever recorded. In Rome only one in three citizens left home. Nothing like this had ever happened in the capital.

The problem is that the phenomenon of abstentionism in these last regional elections is not an exception, but rather follows a trend. In the nationals of September the influx was the lowest of the Italian democracy in general, 63.9%, almost ten points less than in 2018. But in these two key regions, the most populated and those that contain the engines political (Rome) and economic (Milan) of the country, has been dramatic. Comparisons with the 2018 regional ones are painful: in Lombardy there was an abstention rate of 26.9%, and now it has been 58.4%. In Lazio five years ago, 33.4% stayed at home, and now 62.8% have done so. The record in history was held by the regional elections of Emilia-Romagna in 2014 (37.7% participation), but then it was considered an isolated event because the governor had just resigned.

The reasons for this political disaffection are varied, from the election of candidates practically unknown to the citizens to a watered-down electoral campaign, the results practically known before the polls - all the polls anticipated an overwhelming victory for the right - or the lack of pull from the progressive camp, in the lowest hours ever, where the parties, once again, have been unable to come together for a competitive formula.

“When it falls below 50% of the voters, the problem of the legitimacy of the institutions opens up. Above all, because those who do not vote are concentrated among the less privileged classes, among those who have a modest level of both education and income, and feel at the margins of the decision-making processes”, the political scientist Piero Ignazi wrote yesterday in Domani. . The expert in polls Alessandra Ghisleri assured in La Stampa that even "there are well-founded suspicions that many have not gone to vote simply because they did not know it."

The consequences are that, once again, the unity between the Brothers of Italy, the League and Forza Italia runs out of rivals and they destroy. With the final results, in Lombardy Attilio Fontana prevailed with 55% of the votes and, in Lazio, Francesco Rocca won with 53%. Meloni was quick to point out that these resounding victories strengthen his government, but even his allies acknowledge that something is wrong if more than half of the voters stay at home. "If we limited ourselves to celebrating, we would be wrong: we must understand how to regain confidence and excite those who have made another choice," said the leader of the League, Matteo Salvini. Giuseppe Conte, leader of the 5 Star Movement, was clear: "Abstentionism is a sign of the disease of our democracy," he lamented.